World Cup 2010 qualification, No big surprises in Asia!

Today the following teams in Asia played their qualification matches for South Africa 2010:

Australia

Japan

South Korea

North Korea

Uzbekistan

Qatar

Iran

UAE

Group 1:

We did not see any surprises and all the teams that were supposed to win, won. Australia proved that they are one of the favorites in their group by trashing Qater      4-0. 

Japan shared the points with Uzbakistan. This was a good day for Uzbakistan as they got their first point with their newly appointed coach. However, their chance of reaching the final stage stays slim. It seems that Japan and Australia have a bigger chance advancing from this group.

Group 2:

Today, we saw the weakest team in the group losing 4-1 to S.Korea. UAE has been so far the biggest surprise in this group, because everybody is surprised on how a weak team like UAE has made it to the final stage of the qualifying.

On the other hand, we saw the mighty Iran win 2-1 against the North Koreans in Azadi stadium. The win was not a deserved win and luck was with the Iranians in the last 20 minutes of the game. However, they got what they wanted from the game. This group seems to be more competitive. Now, we have 4 teams ( Saudi Arabia, S. Korea, N. Korea and Iran) having 4 points. Also, I predict Iran and South Korea winning the two spots of this group. Iran seems to have the best players in Asia;however, their coaching stuff seems to be very inexperienced. I believe eventually the individual efforts of players like Mahdavikia and Nekounam will help Iran advance.

More to come............