According to many sources, the draw will be held on May 4. According to futbol palestine and based on April FIFA Rankings, the seeding: pot 1: UAE (hosts), Iran, Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia pot 2: China, Syria, Kyrzyg Republic, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman pot 3: Uzbekistan, Iraq, India, Qatar, Vietnam, Korea DPR pot 4: Philippines, Turkmenistan, Jordan, Bahrain Yemen, Thailand
Playing the friendly vs. Bahrain and subsequently losing to Oman really cost Palestine. They could have been ranked above Japan and Korea in April's rankings. The PFA's decision to agree to hire Baldivieso (as a favor to the Saudis) and do away with Barakat as manager really blew up in their faces. Fingers crossed he gets fired because if he stays we will be screwed come the Asian Cup.
2019 Asian Cup Draw - When, where, how! All you need to know The continent's biggest tournament is set for its 2019 edition with the draw for it set to happen in May 2018... The 17th edition of the quadrennial international championship of Asia will be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) early next year. The tournament will feature 24 teams from the Asian continent. This will be the Asian Cup's biggest edition to date. Australia are the defending champions, having won the edition in 2015. The draw for the tournament will play a crucial role in how the Asian Cup unfolds. So, when is the draw? Where is the draw? Format The group stages of the tournament will see the 24 teams drawn into six groups of four each (Groups A-F). 16 teams will qualify to the knockout stages from the groups. Which means the top two teams from each group and four best third-placed teams will go through to the knockout stages. When and where is the draw? The draw will take place at the Dubai Opera in Dubai on May 4, 2018. Venue Dubai Opera, Dubai (UAE) Date Friday, May 4 Pots The 24 teams have been divided into four pots consisting of six teams each according to their FIFA rankings. Each group will have a team from each of the four pots. Hosts UAE will be placed in Pot 1 along with the heavyweights of the continent and will be drawn first to take up a slot in Group A. The rest of the teams will be drawn at random. Here are the four pots: Here are the four pots: Pot 1 Pot 2 UAE China Iran Kyrgyzstan Australia Oman Japan Syria South Korea Palestine Saudi Arabia Lebanon Pot 3 Pot 4 India Jordan Qatar Bahrain Iraq Thailand Vietnam Philippines North Korea Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Yemen http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2019...hat-you-need-to-know/1picy9toi8yuz4u6akjingfy
I'm not sure if the information in this article is entirely accurate (or at least some is not confirmed). There is still some speculation on the draw and how the teams will be grouped. There has been some talk that the first division of the teams will be based on qualifying, then FIFA rankings ie the teams that qualified in the combined WC/AC round make up pots 1 & 2 and the teams that qualified in round 3 make up pots 3 & 4.
Pots confirmed as believed. Teams that played 3rd round WC qualifiers into Pots 1 & 2. Teams that play extra Asian Cup qualifiers into Pots 3 & 4. http://www.the-afc.com/competitions...ngs-confirmed-for-afc-asian-cup-uae-2019-draw
Iraq, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Thailand the big winners of the seeding. Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman and North Korea the losers here.
For Palestine: Looking to get placed in Group B or Group F with a tournament favorite. Either Australia or Korea Republic (never played either before) or Iran (that 7-0 in 2011 was rock bottom and a match in the Asian Cup would be a good way to measure ourselves vs. the best). If we get one of the big boys I'd like Thailand and Turkmenistan to round out the group.
Easiest group: Saudi Arabia - Iraq - India - Turkmenistan Group of Death: Iran - Iraq - Oman - Jordan
Oman is better than Palestine and Lebanon? I doubt especially that Lebanese and Palestinian will have an important fan base in the UAE
Iraq always has trouble playing Oman, because of their pace and physical strength, whereas Iraq has a good record against Lebanon over the last years..
Palestine and Yemen are also good options for Pot 3 and 4 teams, we almost always beat those two. I'm definitely hoping to avoid Oman, Bahrain and Jordan. We slip up against those teams a lot, just look at the Gulf Cup. As far as I know, the 4 best 3rd placed teams out of 6 also qualifies to the knockout round this year. I'd be very disappointed if we didn't manage that with whatever group we get.
I would say that this is a different Palestine team than the one of days gone by but our FA has created a managerial crisis out of nothing. Our record against Iraq is something like 2 draws and 9 losses- we might have more talent at our disposal but Iraq is one team I would like to avoid.
Yes it is. In fact, Palestine always made life hard for Iraq. We dropped points in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, 2007 Asian Cup qualifiers, and even in the 2015 Asian Cup it was a closer game than the score suggested
Give me Iran Thailand Lebanon Jordan Gives us a chance to play new teams but get in stride for knockout rounds. Not the easiest group but we should qualify and then our R16/QFs might be more lenient. I very much look forward to not playing Qatar until 2025 so please not Qatar.
Nahh the whole Ben Williams-Ala Abdul Zahra thing left Id rather avoid past dramas. We play better when no drama is present. Although Pooladi wont hand you guys the game now and instead we have Mohammadi the 99 sprint speed ninja
Not really fussed who we get in terms of strength. Would like to get someone we haven't played against for a while (or at all). We've played all the teams in pot 2 relatively recently so don't care here. In pot 3 we have recently played Kyrgyzstan and Oman so would prefer one of the others. In pot 4 we have played Bahrain and Jordan recently so would prefer the others.
. I prefer to have that match in the final round of WC qualifiers 2022. If you really care about the future of Iraq football and I am sure you are, you should pray and wish to play against Saudi Arabia in this tournament. In my perspective, not only It may be privilege for Iraq national team to play against full strength of senior Saudi Arabia national team, currently It will also be at least 5 times more beneficial for Iraq team to play against Saudi Arabia than playing against Iran and any other top Asian national team.
Australia has never played Palestine, Yemen or Turkmenistan. I want to get North Korea, who we have never beaten, and who knocked us out of the WCQualifiers many moons ago. For the knockout stages - has to be IRAN. I mean, come on ! We have been in AFC for +10 years and we have never played the top team. I would like to play them in an un-Friendly at the MCG too.
It is very simple. WC is expanded to 48 teams from 2026 which means that you and many other Asian nations have chance to qualify unlike now. It means every single point will be decisive and important for you unlike now because you are going to compete with teams such as Uzbekistan, UAE, Syria, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, etc. for qualification to the WC not Australia, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. Qualifying to the WC will play huge role in development of the football in every country. Historically Iraq have always been easy 6 points for KSA in the qualifiers from 1998 to now. The more you play against KSA before WCQs 2026 the better chance you have to not get 0 point against them in WCQs. WCQs 2002: The number of points Iraq got against KSA out of 6 Points: +0 Asian Cup Qualifiers 2015: The number of points Iraq got against KSA out of 6 Points: +0 WCQs 2018: The number of points Iraq got against KSA out of 6 Points: +0 Although Iran was able to get 6 points against Iraq in WCQs 2002, but we had a lot more trouble against you compare to KSA. Although Australia and Japan got full 6 points against you in WCQs 2014, they still had much more trouble against you compare to KSA. As we all saw, Iraq was able to get 1 point against both Australia and Japan in WCQs 2018 (You should have gotten at least 2 points against Japan because the first goal Japan scored in Saitama was offside and you conceded the second goal in last minute of the extra time) but again you got 0 point against KSA. Even Australians and Japanese admitted that they were fortunate to escape with 1 point against you in the second leg. I do not think KSA would have missed the WC for more than 10 years if they had Iraq in their qualifying group in those 10 years. So I think playing against KSA will be more beneficial for future of Iraq football than playing against Iran, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.
I don't think it's anything to do with Saudi Arabia specifically though. KSA were one of the top 3 teams in Asia in 2002 WCQ so it's not a surprise to lose to them back then. 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers we were a mess and even lost to China in that round and barely qualified, those losses were because of ourselves rather than them. In 2018 WCQ we dominated Saudi throughout the whole first game but they won because of incorrect penalty decisions by the referee right near the end. In the away match they dominated us, but again we were a mess at that time too (sacked our coach immediately after that game and only after that our performance improved which saw us get 4 points from Japan and UAE). We beat KSA in both the 2004 Asian Cup (groups) and 2007 Asian Cup (final) so we can beat them, and we've beaten them in regional competitions. We just tend to play them at the wrong times during WCQs, and the one time we were in a good place the referee screwed us. At least that is the way I see it.
Anybody who got the full match schedule ? wikipedia got group A with match dates and venues , where will the other groups be played ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_AFC_Asian_Cup