I was saying this on the Group A thread, but was playing around with the table stats the other day and there's a kind of strange contrast between Group A + Group B when it comes to goas. Group A is a very low scoring group for some reason when compared to group B... you've got 26 goals as compared to the 48 goals scored in the 16 games so far from group B... that's 1.44 goals per game only in Group A, and 2.67 gpg in Group B. What makes that stat even more compelling is that 10 of those goals came from two South Korean home fixtures vs Qatar + China. Take those games out and you're looking at exactly one-goal per game. The other game played in Seoul was S.Korea vs Uzbekistan which ended 2-1... take out all three of the games played in Seoul and you have under a goal per game being scored in all game in Group A which is shockingly low. Only one game played out of Seoul produced more than one goal, and that was Iran 2-0 Qatar. Group B meanwhile hasn't had a single goalless draw, as compared to the 4 in Group A, and only 2 1-0's, compared to the 9 single goal matches in Group B. Interesting, but anyway if you are into goals, then this is certainly the group to watch.
Round 2 GF results of teams in group A R3 29/8 27/8 26/8 26/8 27/8 20/8 = 155/48 = 3.2292 gpm Round 2 GF results of teams in group B R3 28/8 25/8 29/8 27/8 14/6 13/6 = 136/44 = 3.09 gpm Round 2 GA results Teams in group A 26/48 = 0.5416 gpm Team in group B 24/44 = 0.5454 gpm Pretty much Group A teams were better in scoring goals and conceding less goals compared to teams in group B of round three If we follow that logic Group C of last round with Qatar and China were the most entertaining one because it had 82 goals. A pretty good indicator that Group C was the greatest and most prolific group! Surprisingly the top teams from that group are at bottom of group A in Round 3!
So you think Iraq should lower their chances of making the World Cup just to increase Saudi Arabia's?
WORLD CUP QUALIFICATION - GROUP B Saudi Arabia: 6: 4-1-1 +7 13pts Japan 6: 4-1-1 +5 13pts Australia 6: 2-4-0 +3 10pts UAE 6: 3-0-3 -1 9pts Iraq 6: 1-1-4 -2 4pts Thailand 6: 0-1-5 -12 1pts
I agree with your assessment. Anything less than a win for either team means that they must not only win their last three games, but they must also rely on other teams dropping points
Nothing against UAE in particular, I wish them hard luck. But come on Aussie guys. You should put your shit together and win this match. We need strong teams with back bones even in play offs. If you guys qualify for play off, we are almost confident that you make it to Russia. Consider any other Asian teams outside big 4 and the possibility of 5th Asian team in WC will reduce in half.
A rematch between Australia vs. Iran will be amazing. I can safely say that Australia is the most exciting team in Asian for majority Iran football fans including me. Well said. Last time we played a friendly match against a big Asian team was not against Korea. It was against Japan in Azadi Stadium, Tehran and only 8000 fans attended to the match which was disappointing. We also played a friendly match against Korea one year before that and 40000-50000 fans attended to the stadium which show that after Australia, Korea is the most exciting team for most Iran football fans.
For me, the most important game of this group today is Australia vs UAE game. A must-win game for Australia if they want to stay on track for finishing top 2 in the group. If they do not win, they will be in jeopardy even for third place. With the absence of Tom Rogic and suspension of Aaron Mooy, I predict a difficult game not only for Australia but also for UAE. UAE has to get at least one point for third place which is the best they can hope for at the moment.
This game will ultimately decide whether or not this group becomes a breakaway three way battle between Saudi, Japan, and Australia to decide the top 2/3, or whether or not UAE can stay in the race. Lose this, and they are as good as out imho....
Damn it UAE, you have one job and you're failing miserably at it. I was hoping you take points from Japan and Aus and give us some breathing room. All the more critical to win tonight against Iraq
Australia looks much better at home. I've watched the UAE couple of times these WCQ and they are quite overrated imo, Omar Abdulrahman has been terrible and lost so many balls, several bad passes he's a big reason that they are really overrated
2-0 Australia now... I hope UAE stick with their coach and don't go back to the foreign-manager route again... but who knows how things will work.
So Australia cruised and Japan too cruising..So its all coming down to KSA vs Iraq to decide the top 3 race.. Talking about UAE being overated , I agree, 1-2 matches they win they boast themselves above Mars. I hated them when they won Gulf Cup at home under Bruno Metsu and how there media portrayed as if they won a huge cup..