Jump to content

WCQ - Asia Final Round + Playoff [R]


beachesl

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Interesting article from today's Guardian Unlimited's website...

..................................................................

Iranian elite head for London and Portsmouth in summer tour

Mehrdad Masoudi

Sunday June 5, 2005

The Observer

The Iran football team have announced plans to tour and set up a training camp in England in July, when they will play a series of friendly matches. Iran will be based at Burnham Beeches and Bisham Abbey National Training Centre and are to play QPR, Millwall and Portsmouth.

Iran, coached by Croatia's Branko Ivankovic, beat North Korea 1-0 on Friday in the final round of the Asian World Cup 2006 qualifiers. Defender Rahman Rezaei headed home to make it 10 points from four games and keep Iran top of their group, one point ahead of Japan, who beat Bahrain by the same score.

It takes a lot to leave Terry Venables speechless, but Iran achieved it in 1997 when he was in charge of Australia.

The Gulf team, having been outplayed by Venables's side for most of their two World Cup 98 qualifying play-offs, scored in the last 15 minutes of the second leg to pull back a two-goal deficit and become the last nation to qualify for the finals in France.

Seven-and-a-half years on, Iran are within one game of becoming the first team to qualify for the 2006 finals. They host Bahrain on Wednesday and a draw will secure their place in Germany - their third appearance in a World Cup finals, the other being in Argentina in 1978.

Expectations are high in a country where 14 daily sports newspapers devote 90 per cent of their coverage to 'Team Melli'.

Iran's 2-1 win over Japan at theran's Azadi Stadium in March, followed by a 2-0 triumph away to Korea DPR, put them in the driving seat.

More than 100,000 were packed into the Azadi Stadium six hours before kick-off against Japan, with another 30,000 turned away. Their victory celebrations, however, were marred by the death of seven fans in a post-match stampede.

Fifa fined the Iranian FA for lack of crowd control and imposed a 50,000-attendance limit on the game against North Korea.

One of their players, Germany-based Vahid Hashemian, who scored both goals against Japan, agreed with the decision.

'If we cannot handle huge crowds, then it is better to play in front of only 30,000 or 40,000 fans. People's lives are far more important,' said Hashemian.

Scores more supporters were injured, among them young girls dressed as boys.

Iranian women have been traditionally barred from attending football games, yet so great is their interest in football, among teenage girls in particular, that they go to extreme measures to gain entry into the stadiums for important matches, wearing baseball caps and baggy clothes to get past security guards at the gates.

The pressure on Iranian authorities to allow female fans to attend football games has been growing and last week a group of fifty female enthusiasts staged a protest outside Iran's oldest stadium - Shiroodi - in central theran, demanding they be allowed to watch their national team play.

As a result of mounting pressure, women were allowed into the stadium officially for the first time to watch the game against North Korea on Friday, where they waved flags in support.

Iran is in the midst of a presidential election campaign and one of the country's most powerful political figures, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, last week had promised to do everything within his power to allow women into football grounds.

That was his first campaign promise - evidence of how important the game is in Iranian society.

No one is more aware of this than coach Ivankovic.

'If Sven-Göran Eriksson thinks he is under pressure in England, I would like to invite him to Iran to experience what pressure is,' Ivankovic said. 'Not only are we expected to win every game, official or not, but we also have to win convincingly - and play like Brazil!'

Should Iran qualify for Germany 2006, the excitement and interest among the country's 70 million population will multiply. Which is one of the reasons Ivankovic_ is bringing his squad to England to gain more experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Blue and White Army

Looks like the playoff side will be Kuwait or Bahrain. Should give the CONCACAF playoff side a decent chance!

Yeah, I agree. Especially if that playoff side is Costa Rica. Of course I only saw the highlights from the AFC qualifying games, but from that I must say that the quality of play looks absolutely awful. Probably on-par with 3rd-tier English league football (ie. the new first division).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Iran erupts in joy after securing World Cup berth

(adds sporadic clashes, paragraphs 8-10)

By Amir Paivar and Hossein Jasseb

theRAN, June 8 (Reuters) - Iran erupted in a frenzy of raucous celebrations after the Islamic state booked its place at the 2006 World Cup soccer finals in Germany with a 1-0 home win over Gulf rivals Bahrain on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets of the capital theran after the match, filling the night air with volleys of firecrackers, whistles and horns. State media reported similar scenes in cities across the country.

"Hello victory, hello World Cup. Iran is on its way to Germany," said Mohammad Reza Sadeghi, a shopkeeper in eastern theran.

Some took the opportunity to flout the Islamic state's strict moral codes. Young men and women danced together in the streets and some women briefly took off their headscarves, mandated by law, and waved them in the air.

Such behaviour was last witnessed in the soccer-mad country when it qualified for the 1998 World Cup finals in France.

"I wish I could go to Germany to support my team. But they would not issue visas for us. They think we are terrorists," said Karim, a young man wrapped in an Iranian flag.

A large security operation was deployed and police blocked many main streets to try to prevent traffic snarls as thousands took to their cars to join the celebrations.

But though the mood was mostly joyous rather than tense, there were sporadic clashes between a hardline volunteer militia and revellers in eastern theran. A Reuters reporter saw at least three injured young people.

"They were chanting slogans against top officials. Then (the militia) attacked them with wooden sticks," said Mina, a teenager at the scene.

Police tried to disperse people but they refused to leave. In other places many policemen waved small Iranian flags and some people offered sweets to police.

UNUSUAL SCENES

"Iran, Iran, we are proud of you," groups of young boys and girls chanted as they leaned out of car windows blaring loud Iranian and Western pop music.

In one traffic-clogged street two cars were involved in a small collision. But the drivers who came out to inspect the damage, instead of arguing over blame, embraced and began celebrating together.

Spontaneous public celebrations are unusual in Iran where mingling between members of the opposite sex and playing pop music are officially banned, though enforcement of such rules has become more lax in recent years.

With presidential elections looming on June 17, candidates were quick to exploit the outpouring of national emotion.

Front-runner Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic conservative who says he favours improved relations with the West, sent a congratulatory message to the team even before the match had finished.

Campaign aides for many candidates handed out promotional flyers to celebrating fans. Cars were plastered with campaign stickers.

But the soccer win vastly overshadowed what has so far been a lacklustre election campaign.

"No election in the world can bring so many people out into the streets," said Mahyar, 27, his face painted with Iran's national colours of green, red and white.

One woman, in tears, said the celebrations were premature.

"These people don't realise. They're allowing these celebrations just before the elections, but after that things will go back to the way they were," she said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Standings on first post updated. Only thing to be decided is third place in Group A to play Bahrain in play-off:

17-Aug-2005 TASHKENT (Uzbekistan) Uzbekistan - Kuwait

Uzbehistan must win to advance. Otherwise, Kuwait plays Bahrain in home-and-away in October, for right to play CONCACAF 4th in November.

The suprise to me in the final Groups was the self-destruction of North Korea, who looked very strong in the semis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

June 8 results that qualified Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea to the World Cup, qualified Bahrain to the Asian playoff, and eliminated North Korea:

North Korea 0 Japan 2 (in Bangkok, Thailand)

(Atsushi Yanagisawa 73', Masashi Oguro 89')

Saudi Arabia 3 Uzbekistan 0

(Sami Al Jaber 9', Sami Al Jaber 60', Saad Al Harthi 87')

Kuwait 0 South Korea 4

(Ju-Young Park 16', Dong-Gook Lee (PK) 28', Dong-Gook Lee 55', Ji-Sung Park 58')

Iran 1 Bahrain 0

(Mohammad Nosrati 48')

quote:Originally posted by beachesl

Standings on first post updated.

Sorry, beachesl, but I had to fix them up. Without the formatting they're just too difficult to read.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Soccr-Kuwait close in on World Cup playoff spot

By Alastair Himmer

TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Kuwait need only a point in Uzbekistan to earn a 2006 World Cup playoff spot in Wednesday's only meaningful Asian qualifier.

Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran and Japan have already claimed Asia's four automatic berths for next year's finals in Germany, with Bahrain assured of being in the playoffs.

Unpredictable Kuwait have taken just four points from their first five games in Group A with Uzbekistan a further two points adrift.

"We have not started well but we will finish well," Kuwait's new Romanian coach Mihai Stoichita told reporters. "Victory is the only thing I am thinking of."

Uzbekistan's hopes of beating Kuwait in Tashkent have been hit by injuries to key players, including Reggina midfielder Ilyas Zeytullaev.

"Life will be rather difficult," acknowledged new Uzbekistan coach Bobby Houghton, who has kept his team's preparations top secret during the build-up to the game.

The circumstances favour defensive-minded Kuwait, who should pick up the point they need to remain in contention for their second World Cup finals following their only previous appearance in 1982.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia travel to South Korea with both sides already through but with the 2002 semi-finalists looking to beat the Saudis to lift some of the pressure off beleaguered coach Jo Bonfrere.

INTENSE CRITICISM

The Dutchman has faced intense criticism since his side finished last in the four-team East Asian Championship earlier this month.

Saudi Arabia have 11 points from five games in Group A with South Korea on 10 but victory in Seoul would help Bonfrere's side salvage lost pride.

Europe-based trio Ahn Jung-hwan, Lee Young-pyo and Cha Du-ri will be back to strengthen South Korea's line-up in a game Bonfrere can ill afford to lose.

Group B leaders Iran are likely to take a weakened squad to Japan, while Bahrain take on North Korea at home for their first competitive test under new coach Luka Peruzovic.

Bahrain have been unlucky to pick up just four points but that tally has proved enough to earn them a playoff spot ahead of a North Korea side yet to win a single point.

The two-leg Asian playoff takes place on September 2 and 7 with the winners going on to face the fourth-placed team from the CONCACAF zone for a berth in Germany.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uzbekistan vs. Kuwait — August 17 @ 9:05 AM EDT

Huge match. Would love to see it. There doesn't seem to be a way to watch it live online, but, for those who know what I'm talking about, apparently there will be a delayed stream by CCTV5 on August 18 at 3:30 AM EDT (the accuracy of that is much less than certain, but might as well give it a shot). No one at MaXxed has committed to distributing it as a torrent, but it could appear later.

The other (basically meaningless) matches on August 17:

Bahrain vs. North Korea

South Korea vs. Saudi Arabia

Japan vs. Iran

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by DJT

Uzbekistan vs. Kuwait — August 17 @ 9:05 AM EDT

Huge match. Would love to see it. There doesn't seem to be a way to watch it live online, but, for those who know what I'm talking about, apparently there will be a delayed stream by CCTV5 on August 18 at 3:30 AM EDT (the accuracy of that is much less than certain, but might as well give it a shot). No one at MaXxed has committed to distributing it as a torrent, but it could appear later.

The other (basically meaningless) matches on August 17:

Bahrain vs. North Korea

South Korea vs. Saudi Arabia

Japan vs. Iran

Well, Uzbeckistan came back from 2-nil down to win 3-2. Probably good news for the 4th place finisher in Concacaf as Kuwait appeared to be at least a little dangerous.

But theroretically, the WC 2006 could feature two nations that can't even beat Saudi Arabia at home 023.gif .... plus Saudi Arabia themselves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The match was indeed on CCTV5. Unfortunately I couldn't connect to the stream until there were only about 10 minutes left. They didn't show the score once during those last minutes, so I could only guess that Uzbekistan were leading given that they needed a win but were counter-attacking instead of pressing forward and that the Uzbek fans seemed excited. Uzbekistan almost scored a fourth in those dying minutes, hitting the post/crossbar on a blast, while Kuwait must have been out of gas as they weren't pressing forward much, just long shots (which made me guess that they were down by more than one goal and had given up). Sounds like it would have been great to see the whole match, but it was nice to at least see the end as I was pulling for Uzbekistan as newbies, and I hope they beat Bahrain, too.

The other results from August 17, which wrap up Asian qualifying except for the Bahrain vs. Uzbekistan playoff (for which I can't find a date yet):

Bahrain 2 North Korea 3          [one strange result]

South Korea 0 Saudi Arabia 1   [two strange results]

Japan 2 Iran 1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They showed the highlights of the Uzbek match on FSWR. The call for the first penalty was atrocious. Either that was the biggest dive ever in history (since the other player appeared to be several feet away), or the player just tripped on his own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bonfrere stands down as South Korea coach

By Peter Rutherford

SEOUL, Aug 23 (Reuters) - South Korea coach Jo Bonfrere has resigned and the search for his successor will begin immediately with the World Cup finals less than a year away, the Korea Football Association (KFA) said on Tuesday.

Dutchman Bonfrere steered South Korea to their sixth consecutive finals in June, but a string of poor performances since had prompted widespread calls for him to step down before next year's tournament in Germany.

"Bonfrere informed the KFA of his decision on Monday and the members of the technical committee have agreed to accept his resignation," said Kang Shin-woo, vice chairman of the KFA's technical committee.

"The KFA did not ask Bonfrere to step down," he added in a televised news conference.

Bonfrere said there was never enough time to build a solid team because key players active in Europe would be brought back just days before a match.

"No coach in the world can bring a team together in two days," he told reporters after the announcement.

Criticism of Bonfrere's leadership increased after South Korea finished last behind China, North Korea and Japan in the East Asian championship earlier this month.

A 1-0 home defeat by Saudi Arabia in their final World Cup qualifier last week had fans and media clamouring for his resignation, prompting the KFA to convene a meeting of its technical committee.

"Bonfrere has decided that it would be difficult for him to continue in the job of coach under the current circumstances," said You Young-cheul, KFA media director.

POSSIBLE SUCCESSORS

Asked about a successor, You said the committee was meeting on the issue. It was expected to reach a decision within a month, committee chairman Lee Hoi-taek was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Bonfrere was himself a surprise replacement for Humberto Coelho, who stepped down in April last year after a humiliating 0-0 draw with the Maldives in a World Cup qualifier.

Coelho had also cited a lack of time to work with players as one of the reasons for his side's disjointed displays.

South Korean media have already been speculating about possible replacements, among them Mick McCarthy, manager of English Premier league side Sunderland, and former Senegal coach Bruno Metsu.

With time short, former South Korean coach Kim Ho said the search might have to be narrowed to Koreans.

"It would take a little time to bring in a foreign leader at this point. I think it would be good to pick a person here," Kim was quoted as saying by YTN television.

The urgency was also reflected in an online poll conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, where 57 percent of the respondents said they preferred a Korean coach.

The job appears to have become something of a poisoned chalice since Guus Hiddink took South Korea to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup on home soil.

"You in the media brought it to the people that this team wasn't as good as it was in the 2002 World Cup -- and that's not fair," said Bonfrere.

"The media and fans had too much expectation." (Additional reporting by Kim Miyoung and Jack Kim)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Wow, this is incredible. Scrap that result in the previous post. The match will be replayed on October 8 in Uzbekistan and the second leg will be played on October 12 in Bahrain.

From FIFA:

FIFA invalidates Uzbekistan-Bahrain result; match to be replayed

6 September 2005

by FIFAworldcup.com

FIFA confirmed today that the result of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ qualifying match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain on 3 September 2005 has been declared invalid and must be replayed. In order to respect the drawn order of the matches, the first leg is to be replayed in Uzbekistan on 8 October 2005, with the second leg match to be rescheduled for 12 October 2005 in Bahrain.

The decision was taken by the Bureau of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ Organising Committee following a formal protest from the Uzbekistan Football Federation concerning a technical error by the referee of the match.

According to Art. 12.4 (B) and 14.1 of the Regulations for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™, all protests, including those against technical errors committed by referees, are to be decided by the Organising Committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™. A bureau of the Organising Committee may pass a decision in lieu of the plenary committee in urgent matters.

The Bureau, composed of Chairman Lennart Johansson, Deputy Chairman Julio Grondona, Dr Chung Mong Joon and FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi, took the decision based on the following facts:

1) At the score of 1-0 in favour of Uzbekistan, in the 39th minute of the match, the referee decided to award a penalty kick to Uzbekistan;

2) The penalty kick was taken and led to goal in favour of Uzbekistan;

3) Before the penalty kick was carried out, an Uzbek player entered the penalty area;

4) Consequently, the referee awarded an indirect free kick to the Bahrain team;

5) However, in such a situation, the Laws of the Game require the referee to order the penalty kick to be retaken;

6) The captain of Uzbekistan team protested to the referee immediately after the mistake had taken place and before the game had restarted. This protest was confirmed after the match;

7) This technical error was confirmed by the match commissioner and the referee inspector in their respective reports;

8) Uzbekistan protested the decision of the referee in a written request, asking for the match to be "cancelled" and be evaluated with a 3-0 forfeit result;

The bureau, taking into consideration that the referee in the match in question had indeed committed a technical error, established that, as a consequence, the match needed to be replayed. As a result, the protest put forward by the Uzbekistan team for the match to be considered a forfeit with a 3–0 result is rejected. In accordance with Art. 12.6 of the Regulations 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™, this decision is final and binding.

And you thought CONCACAF refereeing was bad! This is ridiculous!

FIFA's decision, or rule that forces this decision, is pretty ridiculous as well. I mean, what if the replay ends with Bahrain scoring an away goal, or in a draw, or even a win for Bahrain? I'm not sure what they can do to solve that problem. But I think it would at least be better to restart the match with a PK for Uzbekistan, 1-0 on the scoreboard and 39 minutes on the clock rather than play the entire match all over again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by DJT

Uzbekistan 1 Bahrain 0

12' Mirdjalal Kasimov

It will be settled on Wednesday, September 7.

Apparently not. The Sept 7th match has been postponed, and the first-leg has been ordered to be replayed by FIFA thanks to another screw-up by a referee. It's appalling how a referee doing a WCQ match doesn't know the basic rules of football.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Sigma

Uzbekistan wants the game continued as of the penalty kick in the replay.

Can't see that happening.

Why not? That makes the most sense to me. If they are unable to continue the game from the 39th minutes because of something in the FIFA rulebook, then that rulebook needs to be amended NOW!

What if the match was 5-nil for the Uzbecks and play was in the 88th minute when the referee made that blunder? You would punish the Uzbecks for a blunder that went in Bahrain's favour? Sense makes not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by CanadianSoccerFan - 09/11/2005 : 11:51:29</u>

AFC bans referee

Now where the h*** was CONCACAF after the Honduras fiasco??

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=342277&cc=5901

Originally posted by The Ref - 09/11/2005 : 12:56:29</u>

As much as I agree that Concacaf sat on their asses and the quality of their referees is poor, the case you link to ESPN in Japan is different. That is a case of misinterpretation of Law 14 and becomes a protestable game. The strange thing is that the article does not say if either of the teams protested. Since the referee erroneous call went against the team that ultimately won the game, why would they protest. The Japan Soccer Assoc. should have left the game alone and just suspend the referee. Now the winner has to replay the game, risk losing it due to no fault of their own.

Originally posted by fan - 09/12/2005 : 11:54:20 </u>

"risk losing it due to no fault of their own."

No because they didnt win the game themselves they won because the referee was incompetent.

If your the better team you will win on your own accord.

Originally posted by fan - 09/12/2005 : 12:02:49</u>

Actually I agree with you the ref because your right they were up 1-0 and finished 1-0.I can only see the ref being punished not the Uzbekis.

This really is crappy.

Originally posted by amacpher - 09/12/2005 : 12:57:24</u>

Are you sure you know what's going on? The referee's bad call helped Bahrain.

Anyway, its tricky because the Uzbecks didn't really win anything since its a two-legged affair. IT's not like they won 3 points and now risk losing it.

I say pick-up the game from the moment where the ref screwed-up in typical AFC fashion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Ref and fan:

Since the stuff in the above post was originally posted in another thread, you probably didn't see the discussion we had about this issue in this current thread. Look at the few posts above and you'll see more details about this situation.

The bottom line is, Uzbekistan protested because they could have won 2-0 instead of 1-0, which is significant over two legs. Of course, now they may end up not even getting a 1-0 win, which makes this whole situation really crazy. Like amacpher said, it would have been best to carry on where they left off with Uzbekistan leading 1-0 and taking a PK in the 39th minute, but even that wouldn't be perfect since Bahrain would be given an additional 50 minutes to score an away goal (2-1 is better for them than 1-0), which makes this whole situation even crazier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...