Final round of Asian qualifying for FIFA world cup 2010
June 29, 2008
The 10 teams that qualified for the final stage of Asian zone qualifying now know their opponents in what will decide the four teams to qualify for the 2010 FIFA word cup in South Africa. A fifth team could also qualify if they defeat the Oceania playoff team.
The teams were drawn into two groups of 5 teams. Australia and Korea Republic were seeded in the different groups and could not be drawn together. The groups are below.
Group 1: Australia, Japan, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Qatar
Group 2: Korea Republic, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Korea DPR, United Arab Emirates
Match schedule (TBC):
(The ten teams, divided into two groups of five, will play home-and-away. Home teams given first:)
Matchday 1: 6 September 2008 - 3 v 2, 5 v 4 (1 bye)
MD 2: 10 September 2008 - 4 v 1; 5 v 3 (2 bye)
MD 3: 15 October 2008 - 1 v 5; 2 v 4 (3 bye)
MD 4: 19 November 2008 - 5 v 2; 3 v 1 (4 bye)
MD 5: 11 February 2009 - 4 v 3; 2 v 1 (5 bye)
MD 6: 28 March 2009 - 2 v 3, 4 v 5 (1 bye)
MD 7: 1 April 2009 - 1 v 4; 3 v 5 (2 bye)
MD 8: 6 June 2009 - 5 v 1; 4 v 2 (3 bye)
MD 9: 10 June 2009 - 2 v 5; 1 v 3 (4 bye)
MD 10: 17 June 2009 - 3 v 4; 1 v 2 (5 bye)
Australia and Japan will continue their World Cup rivalry after facing each other in the group stage in the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. On that occasion Australia got the points.
Australia and Qatar opponents in the previous group stage are paired up once again. Australia will be hoping to have repeat of the impressive wins against Qatar.
The two Korean teams are together again for this stage of qualifying after coming through from the same group.
There will be no easy matches in the race for a spot at the 2010 World Cup.
Who are your picks to advance from the Asian zone? Leave you comment below. Also if you want to share this article you can use the ShareThis link below.
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