Qualifying Recap: ASIA

RUNDOWN

Teams Entered in Qualfiying: 43
Spots Allocated by FIFA: 4.5
Number of Rounds: 5 + Intercontinental Playoff
Number of Matches Played: 150*
Goals Scored: 429
Top Goal-Scorer: 8 Goals; Shinji Okazaki (JPN)

Asian Countries Previously in Cup Finals: 11
Most Appearances: South Korea (9)
Best Finish: Fourth Place (South Korea '02)

*-Includes matches later forfeited

INTRODUCTION

Asian qualifying featured 43 teams competing in up to 4 main rounds of competition. The 5th round consisted of a playoff to determine who would compete against a South American representative for one of the intercontinental playoff spots. The Asian Football Confederation used it's own method of seeding teams for their qualification. The 2010 Finals and intercontinental playoff participants were automatically seeded 1-5 and given a bye to Round 3 of the competition. Team ranked 6-27 were given byes to Round 2, with the remaining 16 teams being placed in Round 1.

Rounds 1 and 2 consisted of 2-leg playoffs against an opponent. Round 3 featured 5 groups of 4 teams with the top 2 teams in each group advancing. Round 4 consisted of 2 groups of 5 teams, with the first and second-place finishers qualifying for the World Cup. 3rd place teams in each group would meet in a 2-leg playoff in Round 5, with the winner advancing to the intercontinental playoff vs. South America

Round 1 (June 2011-July 2011)


Round 1 in Asia consisted of the 16 lowest seeded teams in qualifying. Teams seeded 28-35 were placed in Pot 1 and drawn against an opponent from Pot 2 (seeds 36-43). Pots and results below

Pot 1: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

Pot 2: Chinese Taipei, Laos, Macau, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Timor-Leste

Pairings

Malaysia 4-4 Chinese Taipei (2-1, 2-3; Malaysia advances due to Away Goals Rule)

Malaysia's 2nd goal in the 2nd leg gave them a 4-2 lead on aggregate and they appeared to be clear to Round 2. But penalties just before half and with 15 minutes to go gave Taipei the equalizer and a chance to advance. Malaysia held on though to advance by virtue of their 2 goals scored in Taipei, having only surrendered 1 in Kuala Lumpur.
 
Bangladesh 3-0 Pakistan (3-0, 0-0)

Bangladesh scored in the very first minute of the first leg and never looked back from there. Relative to population size, Pakistan is one of the more disappointing teams in Asia, as they have never been able to garner a foothold in the sport. FIFA has acknowledged that Pakistan is a nation they wish to see more developed in the soccer world.

Cambodia 6-8 Laos (4-2, 2-4; 0-2 in extra time)


A chaotic series between the 2 neighbours which saw 5 different lead changes in the first leg alone. 4 goals in the first hour of the 2nd leg gave Laos a 6-5 lead on aggregate but Cambodia managed to pull one back late on a goal from Kouch Sokumpheak. This created the bizarre scenario with 12 goals scored over 2 legs and both teams tied not only on aggregate but in away goals (both sides had notched 2). As per tiebreaking procedure, a 30-minute extra time period was played, and Laos managed to score 4 minutes in to the period, sealing the victory with a penalty kick 20 minutes after.

Sri Lanka 1-5 Philippines (1-1, 0-4)

Sri Lanka no match for the Philippines in Manila, who scored early and often in the second leg to advance comfortably. Philippines joined Laos in Round 2, despite those teams being the 2 lowest seeds in Asian qualifying.

Afghanistan 1-3 Palestine (0-2, 1-1)

Forced to play their home leg in Tajikistan due to ongoing security concerns, Afghanistan could never get any momentum going in this playoff. Managed to finally get on the board late in the second half but already trailing 3-1 on the road, it was too little, too late at that point.
 

Vietnam 13-1 Macau (6-0, 7-1)

A massacre from the beginning, Macau never had a chance in this matchup. Vietnamese striker Le Cong Vinh made a name for himself, scoring 7 goals in 2 games, more than all but 2 other teams in the round.
 


Nepal 7-1 Timor-Leste (2-1, 5-0)

Overmatched to begin with, a lack of a suitable home stadium meant that both legs of this playoff took place in Kathmandu, Nepal. Would not have mattered as Timor-Leste could offer little resistance in the second leg as Nepal ran away with this matchup.


Mongolia 1-2 Myanmar (1-0, 0-2)

Less Myanmar won this playoff then Mongolia gave it away. Up 1-0 with a half hour to go, Myanmar finally scored through Pai Soe. Then minutes from extra time, Mai Aih Naing managed to find a second for Myanmar who snatched what appeared for the longest time to be a Mongolian victory.

ROUND 2 (July 2011)


The 8 winners from Round 1 joined seeds 6-27 in this Round. The 30 teams were seeded in 2 pots and drawn against a team from the other for a 2-leg playoff, same as Round 1. Playoff winners advanced to Round 3.

Pot 1 (Seeds 6-20): China, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan

Pot 2 (Seeds 21 and higher): Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Palestine, Philippines, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Yemen

Pairings

Thailand 3-2 Palestine (1-0, 2-2)

Murad Alyan was able to tie the playoff at 2 with a goal in the 90th minute of leg 2, but Thailand still held the away tiebreaker. An injury time goal for Thailand made that rule unnecessary.
 
Lebanon 4-2 Bangladesh (4-0, 0-2)

Bangladesh woke up with half an hour to play in the 2nd leg. 4 goals in one half was far too big a hole for them though as Lebanon was able to cruise through this pairing.
 
China 13-3 Laos (7-2, 6-1)

The playoff started with a scare for China who found themselves down 2-0 after half an hour of play. They scored the next 9 goals over 2 legs though to blow out an overmatched Laos squad.
 
Turkmenistan 4-5 Indonesia (1-1, 3-4)

The only pairing to have a lower seed beat the higher seed on the field, Indonesia held aggregate leads of 4-1 and 5-2 during the second leg. A furious comeback by Turkmenistan brought them within a goal of advancing on away goals but they ran out of time.
 
Kuwait 5-1 Philippines (3-0, 2-1)

Philippines fell behind early and were never able to recover, as Kuwait advances with a comfortable 5-1 victory.
 
Oman 5-0 Myanmar (3-0, 2-0; First leg originally a 2-0 Oman victory)

One of the more frightening scenes in qualifying, the first leg originally resulted in a 2-0 Oman victory. Just before halftime in the 2nd leg in Myanmar, Oman converted a penalty to go up 4-0 on aggregate. Myanmar fans began pelting players with bottles and stones, sending the players running for the dressing rooms. The match was abandoned when the crowd could not be contained. FIFA declared that result final and gave Oman the first leg 3-0 by forfeit.

Myanmar was initially banned by FIFA from 2018 World Cup qualification. Upon appeal, Myanmar was reinstated but all home qualifiers for that tournament must be played at a neutral site.

Saudi Arabia 8-0 Hong Kong (3-0, 5-0)

Up against one of the perennial strong teams in Asia, Hong Kong could offer little competition to Saudi Arabia, who advanced with ease.

Iran 5-0 Maldives (4-0, 1-0)

A bit of a surprise only in that Iran did not win by a larger margin. Have always found Iran to be a bit of an enigma in world soccer. Sometimes it's best to just accept the results and move on which is the case here.
 
Syria 0-6 Tajikistan (0-3, 0-3; Matches originally finished 2-1 and 4-0 for Syria)

When these matches were played Syria had finished with a 6-1 victory on aggregate. However, it was later determined Syria had fielded an ineligible player and Tajikistan was subsequently given both games. Original story here.

Qatar 4-2 Vietnam (3-0, 1-2)

Similar to Bangladesh, Vietnam showed flashes that they could play with the higher seeded team, but waited until the last 30 minutes to do so. No change to catch Qatar down 4-0 in the second leg.

Iraq 2-0 Yemen (2-0, 0-0)

A great story on and off the field, as Iraq continued their run of success by advancing to Round 3. The first leg also saw a return to world cup qualifying played in Iraq, as the security situation had prevented international home games for years.
 
Singapore 6-4 Malaysia (5-3, 1-1)

Singapore entered the 2nd leg with a 2-goal cushion but having surrendered 3 away goals in leg 1, things looked grim when Malaysia took a 1-0 lead in leg 2. A 71st minute goal from Shi Jiayi restored the 2 goal lead and Singapore never looked back.
 
Uzbekistan 7-0 Kyrgyzstan (4-0, 3-0)

Dominant performance from Uzbekistan. One of my favourite teams in qualifying, this was just the start of a long, exciting qualifying run for Uzbekistan, which came up just short.
 
United Arab Emirates 5-2 India (3-0, 2-2)

More baffling then Pakistan's struggles is how their neighbour, with over a billion people continuously struggles to make headway in the sport. Crippled by being down to 9 men in the first leg (including their goalkeeper), India was never able to launch a comeback against the Emirates side. May have been close without the 2 red cards but another disappointing campaign for India.

Jordan 10-1 Nepal (9-0, 1-1)

Jordan coasted through the second leg after a massive blowout in the first leg. The 9-0 game but Jordan on the map as one of the teams to beat in Asia this campaign.

 ROUND 3 (September 2011-February 2012)
 
Round 3 consisted of the 5 highest seeded teams and the 15 winners from Round 2. These teams were assigned to 5 groups of 4 at the World Cup Qualifying Draw. Groups were in a double round-robin format with the top 2 advancing to Round 4.

Group 1

Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	+/-	Points
Iraq	5	1	0	14	4	10	15
Jordan	4	2	0	11	7	4	12
China	3	3	0	10	6	4	9
Singapore	0	6	0	2	20	-18	0

Expected to be China and one of Iraq or Jordan, China were stunned by 3 straight losses to the Middle Eastern nations in the middle of qualifying, which saw them score just once in those 3 matches. Mathematically eliminated with a game to play, this was a huge disappointment for China who saw themselves as a likely candidate to qualify in this campaign. Great performance from both Jordan who locked up a spot in Round 4 with 2 games to spare and Iraq who had to play their last 2 home games outside of Iraq again for security reasons.

Full Results:

China 2-1 Singapore
Iraq 0-2 Jordan
Singapore 0-2 Iraq
Jordan 2-1 China
Singapore 0-3 Jordan
China 0-1 Iraq
Iraq 1-0 China
Jordan 2-0 Singapore
Singapore 0-4 China
Jordan 1-3 Iraq
China 3-1 Jordan
Iraq 7-1 Singapore

Group 2

Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	+/-	Points
South Korea	4	1	1	14	4	10	13
Lebanon	3	2	1	10	14	-4	10
Kuwait	2	2	2	8	9	-1	8
United Arab Emirates	1	5	0	9	14	-5	3

Expected to be South Korea and then a battle for second place, the group took an interesting turn when Lebanon surprisingly beat Korea on the second last matchday. All 3 top teams found themselves within 2 points of each other with an outside chance of favourites Korea not advancing. It wasn't to be though as Korea (only needing a draw) pulled out 2 second-half goals to beat Kuwait and secure advancement for themselves and Lebanon. Lebanon lost their last game to UAE, and would have been eliminated in the event of a Kuwait win.

Full Results:

South Korea 6-0 Lebanon
UAE 2-3 Kuwait
Lebanon 3-1 UAE
Kuwait 1-1 South Korea
South Korea 2-1 UAE
Lebanon 2-2 Kuwait
UAE 0-2 South Korea
Kuwait 0-1 Lebanon
Lebanon 2-1 South Korea
Kuwait 2-1 UAE
South Korea 2-0 Kuwait
UAE 4-2 Lebanon






Group 3

Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	+/-	Points
Uzbekistan	5	0	1	8	1	7	16
Japan	3	2	1	14	3	11	10
North Korea	2	3	1	3	4	-1	7
Tajikistan	0	5	1	1	18	-17	1

The snoozer of the Asian groups, Uzbekistan and Japan had both clinched advancement with 2 games each to play. Tajikistan, only in the group after Syria was disqualified could not challenge any of the opponents and North Korea's park-the-bus strategy that got them to South Africa failed against the organized attacks of Japan and Uzbekistan. Only surprise was Uzbekistan finishing ahead of Japan, highlighted by a last day 1-0 victory over the Japanese on the road.

Full Results:

Japan 1-0 North Korea
Tajikistan 0-1 Uzbekistan
North Korea 1-0 Tajikistan
Uzbekistan 1-1 Japan
North Korea 0-1 Uzbekistan
Japan 8-0 Tajikistan
Tajikistan 0-4 Japan
Uzbekistan 1-0 North Korea
North Korea 1-0 Japan
Uzbekistan 3-0 Tajikistan
Tajikistan 1-1 North Korea
Japan 0-1 Uzbekistan

Group 4

Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	+/-	Points
Australia	5	1	0	13	5	8	15
Oman	2	2	2	3	6	-3	8
Saudi Arabia	1	2	3	6	7	-1	6
Thailand	1	4	1	4	8	-4	4

 With Australia comfortably winning the group, this became a slugfest for the second spot. Saudi Arabia was the pre-round favourite but were held back by scoring woes, resulting in 3 scoreless draws in their first 5 games. Saudi Arabia could clinch advancement on the last day with a win over Australia in Melbourne, but 3 second-half goals in 4 minutes by the Aussies forced Saudi Arabia in to the unenviable position of needing help to advance. The help wasn't there as Oman scored early against Thailand and then clinched advancement with a second in injury time. A tie would have put the Saudis through on goal differential; instead they exited the campaign before even getting to Round 4.

Full Results:

Australia 2-1 Thailand
Oman 0-0 Saudi Arabia
Thailand 3-0 Oman
Saudi Arabia 1-3 Australia
Australia 3-0 Oman
Thailand 0-0 Saudi Arabia
Oman 1-0 Australia
Saudi Arabia 3-0 Thailand
Thailand 0-1 Australia
Saudi Arabia 0-0 Oman
Australia 4-2 Saudi Arabia
Oman 2-0 Thailand

Group 5 

Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	+/-	Points
Iran	3	0	3	17	5	12	12
Qatar	2	0	4	10	5	5	10
Bahrain	2	1	3	13	7	6	9
Indonesia	0	6	0	3	26	-23	0

An interesting group that was always a 3-horse race with Indonesia just trying to survive. Iran struggled at times but managed to clinch advancement with a game in hand. Going to the final matchday, Bahrain needed to win by 9 goals or more over Indonesia and needed a Qatar loss in order to advance. Bahrain did their part, winning 10-0 on the final day. This set off alarm bells in the football world as Bahrain conveniently won by the ridiculous amount they needed to against an Indonesian team missing several regulars and having several uncapped players in the lineup. FIFA investigated amidst match-fixing claims but found no evidence of foul play. The point was moot anyway as a late Qatari goal gave them a 2-2 draw with Iran, leaving them 1 point clear of Bahrain.

Full Results:

Iran 3-0 Indonesia
Bahrain 0-0 Qatar
Indonesia 0-2 Bahrain
Qatar 1-1 Iran
Indonesia 2-3 Qatar
Iran 6-0 Bahrain
Bahrain 1-1 Iran
Qatar 4-0 Indonesia
Indonesia 1-4 Iran
Qatar 0-0 Bahrain
Bahrain 10-0 Indonesia
Iran 2-2 Qatar

ROUND 4 (June 2012-June 2013)


The 10 teams that advanced from Round 3 were placed in to 2 groups of 5 in Round 4, each group playing a double round-robin. The teams were seeded based on the March 2012 FIFA World Ranking. The top 2 teams in each group would qualify for the World Cup Finals. The third-placed teams in each group would advance to Round 5.

Group 1

Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	+/-	Points
Iran	5	2	1	8	2	6	16
South Korea	4	2	2	13	7	6	14
Uzbekistan	4	2	2	11	6	5	14
Qatar	2	5	1	5	13	-8	7
Lebanon	1	5	2	3	12	-9	5

A wildly entertaining group that saw the top 3 teams fighting to the last minute for the 2 automatic qualifying spots. With 2 games each to go, Uzbekistan and South Korea led the group with 11 points with Iran close behind on 10. South Korea appeared to be the odd team out, with no remaining games against Qatar or Lebanon whereas the others each had 1 left against the bottom teams. As expected on the second last matchday, Iran blew out Lebanon to get to 13 points. South Korea managed to hang on to a 1-0 victory over Uzbekistan though on the strength of an Akmal Shorakhmedov own goal. Iran, who had been struggling away from home all campaign beat South Korea in Ulsan to clinch the group. Uzbekistan staged a dramatic comeback in their game against Qatar. Down 1-0, they scored 5 times in the last 30 minutes for a 5-1 victory. Their loss to Korea was their downfall though, as they would have needed a 6-goal victory to overcome their goal differential deficit and take the second spot tiebreaker.

Full Results:

Uzbekistan 0-1 Iran
Lebanon 0-1 Qatar
Lebanon 1-1 Uzbekistan
Qatar 1-4 South Korea
South Korea 3-0 Lebanon
Iran 0-0 Qatar
Uzbekistan 2-2 South Korea
Lebanon 1-0 Iran
Qatar 0-1 Uzbekistan
Iran 1-0 South Korea
Qatar 1-0 Lebanon
Iran 0-1 Uzbekistan
South Korea 2-1 Qatar
Uzbekistan 1-0 Lebanon
Qatar 0-1 Iran
Lebanon 1-1 South Korea
South Korea 1-0 Uzbekistan
Iran 4-0 Lebanon
South Korea 0-1 Iran
Uzbekistan 5-1 Qatar

Group 2
 

Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	+/-	Points
Japan	5	1	2	16	5	11	17
Australia	3	1	4	12	7	5	13
Jordan	3	4	1	7	16	-9	10
Oman	2	3	3	7	10	-3	9
Iraq	1	5	2	4	8	-4	5

 No surprises in this group in who advanced directly and finished in third place. But where Japan had a relatively straightforward road to qualification, Australian fans were sweating up until the end of qualification. After drawing their first 2 games, they looked terrible in a 2-1 loss to Jordan. They won their next game but followed that up with 2 more draws and with 2 games to go, were sitting on a record of 1-1-4. Trailing Oman and dead even with Jordan, Australia was finally able to pull everything together, soundly defeating Jordan at home to pull clear of both teams going to the last matchday. A late goal against Iraq clinched second place for them, and they should be fortunate they were in this group and not dealing with the chaos of Group 1. Jordan's defeat of Oman gave them third place and the other playoff spot in Asia.

Full Results:

Japan 3-0 Oman
Jordan 1-1 Iraq
Japan 6-0 Jordan
Oman 0-0 Australia
Australia 1-1 Japan
Iraq 1-1 Oman
Japan 1-0 Iraq
Jordan 2-1 Australia
Oman 2-1 Jordan
Iraq 1-2 Australia
Oman 1-2 Japan
Iraq 1-0 Jordan
Australia 2-2 Oman
Jordan 2-1 Japan
Japan 1-1 Australia
Oman 1-0 Iraq
Australia 4-0 Jordan
Iraq 0-1 Japan
Australia 1-0 Iraq
Jordan 1-0 Oman

ROUND 5 (September 2013)

The two third-place teams in Round 4 advanced to Round 5 for a 2-leg aggregate playoff. The winner advanced to the intercontinental playoff against a South American representative.

Pairing

Jordan 2-2 Uzbekistan (1-1, 1-1; Jordan won 9-8 in penalty kicks after the second game.)

One of the greatest finishes to a playoff in recent memory. 210 minutes of soccer and nothing was separated between the two teams. The resulting penalty shootout went 10 rounds with goalkeepers on deck to shoot had it gone any further. Embedded below is a youtube link to the penalty shootout. Mind the quality, doesn't appear HD has gotten everywhere yet.

With the win, Jordan advanced to the intercontinental playoff. Will recap that once South American recap has been posted.

Qualifiers

Australia:4th Finals Appearance (3rd consecutive). Made Round of 16 in 2006. Group Stage in '74 and '10. World Ranking: 59th
Iran:4th Finals Appearance (Last appearance in '06). Has never advanced out of group stage. World Ranking: 37th
Japan: 5th Finals Appearance (5th consecutive). Made Round of 16 in '02 and '10. World Ranking: 47th
South Korea:9th Finals Appearance (8th consecutive). Fourth Place finish in '02 and Round of 16 in '10. Did not advance from group stage in 6 other appearances. World Ranking: 55th