i can't see us doing too well in the world cup (where have the quality of our players gone to?) but this qualification should be a breeze for korea. korea right now has a youthful squad thats also very experienced. players know each other from playing together for a long time, many of them were involved in the 2014 qualification so they know what they are in for, got some scoring in son&suk, got something resembling defence, a cautious manager who brings determination out of players. basically zero unpredictability with this team. all while still retaining the youth said this before but we will regret being seeded together with japan. their team for the qualification is at a higher age curve than us and unlike us they are still in the process of putting together a team. they will struggle at times during this qualifiers. if we were in the same group i have no doubt we would have gotten at least 4 points from them. with help from other teams, we could have sent them to the third place, which is a big regret since they stand to perform better than us at the world cup. we could have eliminated their chances altogether
Uzis are good enough to beat both us and Iran on any given day. I personally give them that much credit. They can hang with the best in Asia. On seed three it was Uzi or Saudi, I say Saudi are easier opponent.
So basically we got the same group as the last one (I see syria as more or less equivalent of Lebanon of the previous group) with the addition of China on top. Kind of wanted to see a few new teams this time but this is still a better group to be in than the other group from qualifying chances perspective, IMO. Not to take China lightly (their current coach Gao Hongbo is the only one that ever beat us IIRC) but they do help our overall scheduling become much more reasonable. We get a neutral away match out of Syria (vs a tougher away match in Thailand) so that helps also. traditionally we always somehow come out on top vs. Uzbeks (I'll take them over Saudis who have been on an upswing lately) and Qatar we had double over them last time around. Iran we've struggled against over the last decade or so but this time but if we can keep up the good gameplay vs them (I felt our overall gameplay vs them the last 3-4 matches have been fine, but just marred by bad finishing and them taking advantage of our few critical errors) we'll eventually get a result, at least not a double loss like last time around. Our scheduling looks very reasonable also so overall I feel good about our chances; we'll just have to hope that our main euro players regain their form by then though, IMO that'll be our main concern.
It's all the usual suspects again, no surprise since the main players in AFC have remained pretty much the same in recent history. Iran and Uzbek will be tough opponents, and as always are looking to get revenge for past losses. China will come out looking to prove something so they won't be pushovers either, although I think the gap in quality is still enough to see us through against them. Our potmate Japan might have gotten the slightly easier route but there's no reason we can't take care of business and finish #1. I predict there will be some very nervous moments though.
From my understanding, Japan got the worse travel schedule. Distances From Japan to hoju, to UAE, Saudi, Iraq(neutral ground like Jordan or Oman), that's a lot of mileage. I was puzzled to see some Japanese members would like not to face China. It's an East Asian travel with only 3 to 4 hrs of travel max. Mark your calendar on September 1st. Which is a start to third round and a home game against China. If Chinese support was anything close to we saw them making the away trips to our homeland during champions league clash against Guangzhou, the national team will be a massive one. September 1st is Thursday with 7am eastern time kickoff. Flushing NY(where I live) is a melting pot of both Korean and Chinese communities, i expect fireworks.
As for Iran, I think we're the ones looking for revenge, given that we've lost all three of our last encounters against them.
It feels like Christmas season to me. I can't wait til the 3rd round qualifiers start. World Cup has started.
Kept them out of 2010 WC, knocked them out of 2011 AC. If it were the other way around I wouldn't give a shit about recent results with no meaning, I would want revenge for these two events.
I think getting 6 points from you in the WCQ is not with no meaning Looking forward to our matches it will probably be the most exciting one in group A especially the one in Azadi
To be honest, I thought it would be exciting to have Korea again but now that we are in the same group I feel bored. Probably, it is because of repeated matches between Iran and Joseon. Having Japan or Australia could add some spice to the competition. I have lost my enthusiasm for this round of qualifiers. We better have some friendlies with Australia and Japan.
lol i like how you used the word Joseon. But in the past the entire Korean peninsula was called Joseon, and now Joseon is being used by the North Koreans. Dae Han Min Guk or simply Han Guk means South Korea.
At this stage I don't really care about spice/entertainment, I just want qualification. Our coach, staff and players are very familiar with Korea, most of the players experienced at least 1 win against them over different years, they know how to play them and it's a blessing to have such a similar group to the previous WCQ as we know all of the opponents rather well this time to prepare accordingly and not repeat the 2014 mistakes. And we already played Japan in the 2015 1-1 draw at Azadi, it wasn't much more exciting than Iran-Korea ones at all
If we had Nippon in this round the matches were more exciting. That friendly back in November was more exciting than our entire matches in AC 2015 and last round of WCQs for me.
I would also like to see you guys qualify for WC alongside us. You guys deserve it after the way AC2015 played out against Iraq. Is that young, tall striker of yours (forgot his name) still developing well?
Thanks man definitely hopefully we both qualify Azmoun? Well his team Rostov is 2nd currently in Russia and he is starting most of the matches, in the national team he's doing very well with 11 goals in 16 games he is basically a starter there as well. He's on loan right now from Rubin Kazan who are looking to sell their most expensive foreign players including him and thankfully he has been transfer listed, I expect a move to either a traditional top Russian team like CSKA/Lokomotiv or to a top 3 league team this summer
I think the away fixture vs Qatar will be one tough match. Though last time around it was a good win for Korea. They'll have strong motivation to qualify before 2022.
I hope Korea does not choose Seoul and Ulsan when we play the second leg against you. I hope you choose a new stadium. It will be cool. It makes it more interesting to me.