It looks very similar to Group F of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. India is the North Koreans of this group. It might come down to goal differential. Bahrain is trickery but we should be able to revenge the loss in the previous tournament and I think we can pull out a point against the Aussies.
Back in 2007, H2H was the first criterion for the tiebreaker. Not sure but I assume it will be the same.
South Korea v Australia on Jan 14 is a must see - especially given that it's at Al Gharafa Stadium - within walking distance from my place so no excuse. On paper Australia + Korea should advance but.... you never know what sort of team their going to be bring. If they don't bring their full strength teams than Bahrain has every chance....
Nice little group, good to finally go up against South Korea in a competitive fixture and I was hoping we'd get India as it will be an extension of our cricketing rivalry
An interesting group. I'm not sure at this stage how strong a side we will send. Many of our older players may retire after the World Cup. The timing may prevent many European players from playing. Assuming the other 3 are at full strength I would expect us to struggle against Korea regardless of the strength of our squad as I rate their first team quite highly. I think our firt team would account for Bahrain, a mix of first team and home based to be about their equal, and a home based side to struggle against them. I think we should be able to get over India with whatever squad we send.
I hazard a guess that we won't be seeing Moore and Chipperfield. Schwarz, Vinnie Neill and 'Awwy even if they haven't retired probably won't be released and similar ??s over Cahill and Bresc (though to keep him from us Moyes might have to lock him in a basement under John Lennon Airport after luring him onto a decoy plane, [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRPDO63rI1E"]Prisoner[/ame]-style). Speculating my arse off: 1. Federici 2. Milligan 3. Carney 4. Cahill 5. Culina 6. Colosimo 7. McDonald 8. Wilkshire 9. Kennedy 10. Carle 11. Rukavytsya 12. Galekovic 13. North 14. Holman 15. Djite 16. Valeri 17. Jedinak 18. Jones 19. Vidosic 20. Williams 21. Oar 22. Spiranovic 23. Kilkenny --------------Federici Williams---Milligan---Colosimo---Carney --------Wilkshire------Culina ---Vidosic-------Carle-----Rukavytsya ---------------Kennedy Brave New World :O
Yes India is weakest team in the competition but that doesn't mean they are visiting Doha as tourist.We have been runners-up in this competition in past,so have some respect !!!
maybe more like a hockey score : But . . . . the last time these teams played was in a friendly some time ago, and India beat Australia 7-1. yes, it was SOME TIME AGO !!!! 1956 after the olympic games
India vs Australia,Past Meetings * 1938 - Australia 4-4 India(Brisbane),Friendly * 1938 - Australia 5-3 India(Sydney),Friendly * 1938 - Australia 1-4 India(Newcastle) ,Friendly * 1938 - Australia 5-4 India(Sydney),Friendly * 1938 - Australia 3-1 India(Melbourne),Friendly * 1956 - Australia 1-7 India(Sydney) ,Friendly * 1956 - Australia 2-4 India (Melbourne),Olympics
with 1 billion inhabitants I would expect India to be at least a 3rd rate Asian team.. example: 1st rate: Korea 2nd rate: Uzbekistan 3rd rate: Singapore 4th: Maledives, India.. Anywho, It's a battle between the rest. I hope for India they'll at least play decent enough, good luck to all.
To be very honest with you, India is on the level of Singapore, or even better. And population is not a good metric to see how good a country is in football. The number interested is football is a very minuscule fraction of the billion.
That's interesting. We have a 3W D 3L record against the Aussies. And a superior goal difference in the head to head. 27-21 Of course, all this doesn't matter much because we are playing them after 55 years.
what happened after the 50's? Did people suddenly discover cricket? seriously, I don't get India! It has a massive population and it's developing country but nobody likes football
because the football adminstrators slept and cricket officials woke up with a help from 1983 cricket world cup win. there are pockets of india where football is still king,like goa,bengal and northeast india.
What I mean was that when India reached the semi-finals of this competition... it was a long, long, long time ago.....
I know what you implied. That is why I used the smiley. Anyways, good luck to all the teams in the competition.