Iraq won a reprieve yesterday that allows them to play their Asian World Cup qualifier against Australia, as a handful of teams fight to stay in the race to South Africa in 2010.
The match had been under threat when FIFA suspended Iraq on Monday after Baghdad dissolved the Iraqi Olympic Committee and all national sport federations.
But a FIFA spokesman said it had since received correspondence from the Iraqi government saying that the Iraq Football Federation was not part of the decree, opening the door for its crucial game on Sunday in Brisbane.
If the game had not gone ahead it would have been curtains for Iraq, with Pim Verbeek’s men already topping Group 1 on four points from two matches.
Qatar are on three points, with China struggling on two and Iraq on one.
Qatar host China on Monday and another loss for the Chinese team could hammer the final nail into their World Cup coffin.
China are perennial underachievers and have so far managed to only draw with Iraq and Australia, making the game in Doha a must-win ahead of the return leg against Qatar in Tianjin on June 7.
After their shock 1-0 loss to Bahrain in March, Asian powerhouse Japan are desperate to make the most of home advantage against Oman on Monday, with coach Takeshi Okada relying on Celtic star Shunsuke Nakamura to carry them through.
“I have realized anew his presence, the accuracy of his play and the fact that he is a player with very high ability to read how the game develops,” Okada said of Nakamura.
Surprise table-toppers Bahrain are in Bangkok against a Thai team that has yet to take a point and who can almost certainly wave goodbye to any faint hopes they have of a trip to Africa if they lose.
Group 3 sees South Korea host Jordan in Seoul tomorrow, with Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung keen to showcase his skills after being snubbed by Alex Ferguson in Manchester United’s Champions League final victory over Chelsea.
South Korea currently have four points and are level with North Korea, who travel to basement team Turkmenistan on Monday.
With Uzbekistan securing two wins out of two so far, Saudi Arabia will need to beat minnows Lebanon, who have lost both their matches, at home to keep the pressure on in Group 4.
Uzbekistan play Singapore in the city-state and another victory would put them on the brink of becoming one of the 10 teams that progress to the final round of qualifying later this year.
In Group 5, pacesetters United Arab Emirates have a tough task in Tehran against Iran, while Syria are at home to Kuwait.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later