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發表於 2007-12-16 20:34:47
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Asian route marked out(FIFA.com) Friday 14 December 2007
The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ Preliminary Draw inDurban threw up some intriguing pairings between Asia's last 20participating teams, and the fixtures recently approved byfootball's governing body have merely added further spice tothe much-anticipated qualifying competition.
On paper, it should be a relatively gentle introduction to theirpreliminary campaigns for Asia's big five, namely top seedsAustralia, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia and Iran, all ofwhom will open the their bids with a home match against theirgroups' lowest-ranked teams on 6 February. Having eachqualified for the previous FIFA World Cup last year in Germany, allfive will be fully expecting to translate their home advantage intoopening victories when battle commences in less than twomonths' time.
Australia will play host to Qatar in Melbourne and the openeralso marks newly-appointed Pim Verbeek's debut in the Socceroosdugout. Already, the former Korea Republic manager has stressed theimportance of the home support's role in inspiring his team toget off to a winning start.
"I am hoping that the stadium will be full of Australiansupporters getting behind the team," said the Dutchman."Making the most of home ground advantage will be vitalthroughout the qualifying campaign."
Huh Jung-Moo, meanwhile, the man who has taken up the KoreaRepublic reins from Verbeek, will also be targeting a resoundingwin when his team entertain Turkmenistan in Seoul. So too willJapan's Takeshi Okada, Ivica Osim's successor, who will bekeen to celebrate his return to the national team with a victoryover Thailand in Tokyo.
Elsewhere, while Saudi Arabia will be expected to encounter fewproblems against Singapore, Iran - who have been without a headcoach since July's AFC Asian Cup - will be anxious to provethat this uncertainty hasn't adversely affected theirpreparations for a potentially tricky opener against Syria.
New Year's eve away, June decisive
The date of 6 February marks the eve of the Spring Festival:the new year of Chinese lunar calendar. While the occasionrepresents the most important yearly occasion for family reunionsand celebration across the country, the China team will be foundaway from home at Al Ain of United Arab Emirates, the venue whichis set to host their vital showdown with Asian Cup championsIraq.
The match comes as the first real test for Serbian coachVladimir Petrovic, who succeeded Zhu Guanghu in September. Of allthe 20 head coaches involved in Asia's qualifying campaign,Petrovic was the first to begin preparatory work as he called upthe team together as early as two weeks ago for a training camp inGuangzhou. "Only a well-prepared team will be able to come upwith satisfying results," he told FIFA.com.
Matchday 2 comes on 26 March, before the qualifyingaction resumes in June, when the remaining four rounds of matcheswill be played within twenty days from June 2 to 22. While fansacross the world's most populous continent will enjoy amemorable few weeks of enthralling football during that time, itwill be a nervy, make-or-break time for the teams.
| Group 1
| Group 2
| Group 3
| Group 4
| Group 5
| | 1 | Australia | Japan | Korea Republic | Saudi Arabia | Iran | | 2 | China PR | Bahrain | Korea DPR
| Uzbekistan
| Kuwait
| | 3 | Iraq | Oman
| Jordan
| Lebanon
| UAE
| | 4 | Qatar
| Thailand
| Turkmenistan
| Singapore
| Syria
|
Fixtures:
6 February 2008, Matchday 1: 1 v 4; 3 v 2
26 March 2008, Matchday 2: 4 v 3; 2 v 1
2 June 2008, Matchday 3: 4 v 2; 1 v 3
7 June 2008, Matchday 4: 2 v 4; 3 v 1
14 June 2008, Matchday 5: 4 v 1; 2 v 3
22 June 2008, Matchday 6: 1 v 2; 3 v 4
View the full match schedule as a PDF, by clicking on thelink to the right hand side.
African road becoming clearer(FIFA.com) Friday 14 December 2007
Following the draw for the South Africa 2010 preliminarycompetition, FIFA has confirmed the dates and format of thequalifying matchdays for each of the 12 groups.
Matchday 1 - 30, 31 May or 1 June 2008: T1-T2, T3-T4 *
Matchday 2 - 6, 7 or 8 June 2008: T2-T3, T4-T1
Matchday 2 - 13, 14 or 15 June 2008: T4-T2, T3-T1
Matchday 4 - 20, 21 or 22 June 2008: T2-T4, T1-T3
Matchday 5 - 5, 6 or 7 September 2008: T2-T1, T4-T3
Matchday 6 - 10, 11 or 12 October 2008: T3-T2, T1-T4
* T1 = team 1 from each group, T2 = team 2...
Consequently, the dates of some major Matchday One encounterscan already be noted, such as Nigeria-South Africa (Gr.4),Senegal-Algeria (Group 6) and Togo-Zambia (Group 11), while a weeklater the Lions of Teranga will travel to Gambia. Mali, however,will not play host to Sudan until Matchday Four (Group 10).Naturally, all of these clashes can be followed live on FIFA.com.
The winners of each group will qualify for the next round, alongwith the eight best second-placed sides. The order of the criteriafor separating the sides is as follows: points, goal difference,goals scored. If any two teams still cannot be separated, aplay-off will take place on 19 November 2008.
View the full match schedule as a PDF, by clicking on thelink to the right hand side. |
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