2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

[The Coon Dog]

The draw for qualifying ties & groups will be made in Durban, South Africa on November 25.

Australia are now part of the Asia Confederation, which is extremely complicated as countries have to go through 5 rounds to qualify.

The top 5 ranked sides from the 2006 World Cup (Australia, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, Japan & Iran) receive byes until round 3.

The remaining 38 countries play off with the 19 winners to progress, the highest ranked 11 receive a bye until round 3, whilst the lowest ranked 8 winners progress to round 2.

The 4 winners from round 2 join the other 16 teams (5 highest ranked & 11 round 1 winners) in round 3.

Round 3 will consist of 5 groups of 4 teams, with winners & runners up from each group progressing to round 4. This is what the draw in South Africa is for on 25 November.

Therefore 10 teams will progress to round 4 which will consist of 2 groups of 5. Winners & runners up from round 4 qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

The 2 teams which finish 3rd in round 4 progress to round 5 where they play each other over 2 legs. The winner then plays the winner from Oceania to qualify for the World Cup.

The 20 countries in the draw for round 3 are: Australia, Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Erimates & Uzbekistan.

[Mantis]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Now I'm just confused.

Can you just tell me when we are playing, I'll chuck on my 'Hiddink 06' T-shirt, put a 6-pack in the fridge and enjoy the game, hey if we play in Melbourne I will probably go, but all these scenarios are freaking me out a little.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Now I'm just confused.

Can you just tell me when we are playing, I'll chuck on my 'Hiddink 06' T-shirt, put a 6-pack in the fridge and enjoy the game.

The draw will determine who, what, where & when, so just sit back, relax, put the t-shirt on ice & all will become clear for you after the draw.

Obviously those top 5 ranked sides that had byes until round 3 would each be in different groups.

Fair dinkum, you'd reckon we'd be dead set certainties to qualify.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

The draw will determine who, what, where & when, so just sit back, relax, put the t-shirt on ice & all will become clear for you after the draw.

Obviously those top 5 ranked sides that had byes until round 3 would each be in different groups.

Fair dinkum, you'd reckon we'd be dead set certainties to qualify.

After our dreadful performance in the Asian Cup you can never be sure, but you'd think worst case would be playing New Zealand for the last spot.

That would have to be easier than playing Uraguay or Argintina.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Australia has been handed a tough task to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. The top 2 teams in the group progress to round 4.

Group 1: Australia, China PR, Iraq, Qatar

Group 2: Japan, Bahrain, Oman, Thailand

Group 3: Korea Republic, Korea DPR, Jordan, Turkmenistan

Group 4: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Singapore

Group 5: Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Syria


For those interested in Europe:

Group 1: Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta

Group 2: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg

Group 3: Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino

Group 4: Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein

Group 5: Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia

Group 6: Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra

Group 7: France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands

Group 8: Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro

Group 9: Holland, Scotland, Norway, FYR Macedonia, Iceland

[LostDoggy]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Toughest Asian group which I think isn't bad thing. No excuses if we don't get there still. Should be able to be top 2 in that group.
I feel more comfortable having a proper route of 2 possibly 3 groups to the WC qualification than the uncertainty and sudden quality of previous campaigns.
Don't make it, we can't blame our route as in the past or wonder if we were good enough.

[Mantis]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

As Ernie mentioned we have a tough draw, but there will be no excuses. We need to play well in our home games and use the big crowds that the games will attract to our advantage.

Interesting to see that England have been drawn with Croatia again. From memory only the top team get automatic entry with playoffs for the top seeded second teams so these teams look like they will battle it out again with only Ukraine offering any threat in there group.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Its only going to get tougher once we do qualify so calling it the "Group of Death" is just sensationalist journalism.

[westdog54]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

As Ernie mentioned we have a tough draw, but there will be no excuses. We need to play well in our home games and use the big crowds that the games will attract to our advantage.
Interesting to see that England have been drawn with Croatia again. From memory only the top team get automatic entry with playoffs for the top seeded second teams so these teams look like they will battle it out again with only Ukraine offering any threat in there group.

Not just for the sake of qualifying but for the sake of the game itself in this country. Now that we'll actually be playing at least 3 games in Australia that actually mean something and not just training run friendlies, I think it could give the game a decent kick-along in this country.

Bring on the qualifiers.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Not just for the sake of qualifying but for the sake of the game itself in this country. Now that we'll actually be playing at least 3 games in Australia that actually mean something and not just training run friendlies, I think it could give the game a decent kick-along in this country.

Bring on the qualifiers.

Your wait is almost over.

Australia v Qatar on Wednesday night at Telstra Dome. A must win game in my view.

[The Underdog]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Your wait is almost over.

Australia v Qatar on Wednesday night at Telstra Dome. A must win game in my view.

Absolutely a must win and the signs aren't positive so far.
The a-league players appear to be struggling to come to terms with "the dutch way".
You've got to worry about relying on the o/s players too much too. Surely a whole team of them would struggle to run out 90 minutes.
On the upside Carney has scored twice for Sheffield United this week so is in good form.
Be interested if they go with Kennedy and MacDonald upfront. I was impressed with Kennedy in the last campaign whenever he was on the pitch.
Gonna need to score early too, to make Qatar attack and not just sit with 10 men in the back half for the whole night, waiting to counter.
Wish I didn't have to work Wednesday night, I'd love to go.

[westdog54]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Absolutely a must win and the signs aren't positive so far.
The a-league players appear to be struggling to come to terms with "the dutch way".
You've got to worry about relying on the o/s players too much too. Surely a whole team of them would struggle to run out 90 minutes.
On the upside Carney has scored twice for Sheffield United this week so is in good form.
Be interested if they go with Kennedy and MacDonald upfront. I was impressed with Kennedy in the last campaign whenever he was on the pitch.
Gonna need to score early too, to make Qatar attack and not just sit with 10 men in the back half for the whole night, waiting to counter.
Wish I didn't have to work Wednesday night, I'd love to go.

A must win game for certain. This group is by far the toughest. Qatar are the lowest seeded team in our group, if we can't beat them at hime then we're going to struggle to go through, full stop.

Iraq have shown they have what it takes to be competitve at Asian level, and China will settle for nothing less than victory.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Good win by the Socceroos. realistically I know people say we have a hard group but we have some very good players and honestly if we can't beat China and iraq then we don't deserve to be in the World Cup in 2010. From where I sit, this is definitely not a group of death and is still prefereable to qualifying through Sth America......heck if you handed a country like Belgium/Estonia/Ireland/Belarus etc the group we have to qualify they would jump at it!

[GVGjr]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

Good win by the Socceroos. realistically I know people say we have a hard group but we have some very good players and honestly if we can't beat China and iraq then we don't deserve to be in the World Cup in 2010. From where I sit, this is definitely not a group of death and is still prefereable to qualifying through Sth America......heck if you handed a country like Belgium/Estonia/Ireland/Belarus etc the group we have to qualify they would jump at it!

I might be looking at this all wrong but I'm disappointed they didn't score in the second half.

[hujsh]

Re: 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw

I might be looking at this all wrong but I'm disappointed they didn't score in the second half.

They did the job. They didn't seem to play as well but created enough chances.