Asia’s top teams get their final push toward the World Cup finals in South Africa under way today with Japan facing a tricky encounter in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia battling Iran.
Of the 46 Asian Football Confederation nations who dreamed of making the finals in 2010, just 10 remain in the hunt — Australia, Bahrain, Japan, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the two Koreas, UAE and Uzbekistan.
Four will qualify automatically, with the third-placed teams in the two groups of five playing off for the right to meet the Oceania representative, likely New Zealand, for a spot at the global showpiece.
Japan go into their clash against Bahrain in Manama desperate to take all three points.
“As I have always said, this match will be the most important for us,” coach Takeshi Okada said. “I think it will be a tough match. But if we overcome this, our team can step up further. So we want to take the first match no matter what.”
With Australia playing a friendly against the Netherlands today, the other Group A match sees Qatar take on Uzbekistan in Doha.
In Group B, plenty is at stake in Riyadh for heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran.
With South Korea, Asia’s most successful team on the world stage having qualified for the past six World Cups, also in the group but not playing today, dropping points could prove costly.
Iranian coach Ali Daei said he had a decent squad capable of going all the way.
“The current group of players are the best in Iranian soccer, they are highly motivated, ambitious and their only aim is the success of the national team,” he told reporters.
“Saudi Arabia is our traditional opponent with good players and team composition, but we have prepared ourselves with tactical trainings for this encounter,” he said.
In the other Group B game, the United Arab Emirates play North Korea in Abu Dhabi.
The final phase of Asian qualifying features 10 rounds of matches, culminating in June next year.
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