5th Placed Asian nation, Who will it be?

Well, he can start on Sunday a.m. with the team for the Iraq game....

Saudi Arabia and Bahrein - primarily counter-attacking sides that have speed (bit like Iraq, but better).

North Korea - fairly conservative, generally play not to lose.
Uzbekistan - struggle to break down good sides on attack, probably not as much speed as Middle Eastern sides.

Game against Iraq on Sunday may give us a far idea of what we'll need to do to compete come play-off time.

realistically, we need to put in a good showing against Iraq. This will boost our confidence for the Playoff. I'm scared of Saudi Arabia, so lets hope its Bahrain. Either will be tough.
 

 Shane I think its ALWAYS worth being in the World Cup,football being football anything can happen. But definitely do agree that things have to change urgently for the AW's  to be a lot more competitive and have a chance of qualifying in the first place.


Rojas for the All Whites, combo with Chris Wood...Wanderers ftw!
RedGed2009-06-18 09:10:20

i think id prefer bahrain as well. didnt auckland city nearly beat them

Nah, that was Kuwait. And that same Kuwait side (not in the top 10 in Asia) went over the ditch and beat A-league Australia (I reckon that side's probably near in quality with us, maybe with a bit more to choose from) 1-0 in Canberra.

Saudi Arabia or Bahrain now.

 

 

A thought: If we get to play KSA what's the chances of getting a visa to the match in KSA?

dairyflat2009-06-18 11:26:43

Ha.  We're so screwed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m3jc_rhba8

Looks like they actually know how to play football, so yeah we are screwed

That overhead attempt is amazing!

... and Bahrain ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_CDfoiC2a8

Does Saudi still have that granville-esque keeper from the last world cup.  I remember him being woeful.

... and the chain smoking coach?

Yeah, that guy hits a mean free kick. Remember him scoring another stunner, I think it was against Japan, earlier in the qualifying.el grapadura2009-06-18 14:59:20

If this mornings game is anything to go by, he wont get a chance to take a free kick. Our defence wont get close enough to foul him

Bahrain dominated Australia in the first leg. There was seriously only one team in that game until the last minute when Bresciano somehow scored.

I remember that game. Bahrain had most of the chances but didn't covert. The Bresciano goal was damn lucky and the Aussies knew it to. matty.j2009-06-18 15:30:43

hopefully they hate playing in the cold/wet. not much else can save us after today!!!!!

There is a part of me (a very small part) hoping we don't make it to save the embarrassment,

LOL

Do you mean Mohamed El-Deayea?

Sorry, wrong world cup.

taking a complete  stab in the dark here but think it will be saudi arabia or bahrain we have to play

Just to make a loose comparison with the AW's 0-0 draw with Iraq this morning, Iraq played Saudi Arabia in Saudi in March and drew 0-0 and they played Bahrain in Bahrain in January and lost 3-1.

Who's favourite to win the play-off?

We can t read too much in Iraq's results against those teams, other than to say they were competative games.

The game against the 5th placed Asian team will be huge. Most rugger heads just dont get it but on a global perspective the game will be the biggest game of football (any code) in NZ this year.

Both those games were friendlies.

when is the Bahrain vs Saudi game?

September 5 and 9 I think.

friendly

Oman 2-1 Saudi Arabia

Rugged as that result is, please bear in mind it's the middle of summer over here, and those guys won't have kicked a ball in anger for at least a couple of months... plus, even in the Austrian summer, it will be at least 20 degrees colder than here, so there's a few reasons why this probably played out as it did.

http://www.inter.it/aas/news/reader?N=31960&L=en

Inter Milan 1 - 0 Bahrain

Quite a respectable scoreline against Inter Milan's last preseason game.