Group of death: Japan Jordan Lebanon Korea DPR Malaysia Group of ideal : Australia Kuwait India Bhutan Bangladesh Japan already had a bad record in Jordan, and Lebanon produced very strong side that once beat Korea Rep in their last 2014 WC qualifying, which can make a bigger surprise to Japan. As for Korea DPR , this team is underdog which I really not understand why they are in pot 4. Japan also once lost in Pyongyang (1-0 back in 2011 ). Malaysia can be dangerous in their home soil with strong atmosphere in Bukit Jalil Stadium ; just like 2014 WC qualifying against Singapore with 90,000 peoples attended that game. as for group of ideal, I only can say Australia and Kuwait will have easy task only to have difficult in away games.
Bad luck if you draw these teams : From Pot 1 : Japan or Iran , because they are strong teams clearly favorites to take one of the 2 spots of the groups and its virtually impossible to beat these teams in Tehran or in Japan From Pot 2 : Qatar , they are on a roll , they can secure points at home. Qatar and Jordan ( in a lower degree ) could become a real headache and can complicate the chances of other members of the group. From Pot 3 : I have my doubts , I can't see a real dangerous team in that pot . From Pot 4 : DPR Korea .... bad performance in Australia2015, but North Korea always gets good results in the intimidating Pyongyang. From Pot 5 : Malaysia , Group rivals will lose valuable points in Kuala Lumpur. maybe Malysia will not move to the next round but will sink others too.....
Subjectively Group of death : Japan Jordan Lebanon Korea DPR Yemen Japan because coach Vahid won't take lightly any game. Jordan has the spirit which is not the main quality of the arabic countries of this pot. Im sure that the countries of pots 1 & 2 are not afraid of the teams of the pot 3. Lebanon will surely change their coach this coach + don't have play any official game since november : so it will be a miracle if they are again the dark horse.. But I think they still better than the others teams of this pot.( One year ago, they won 5-2 in Bangkok). Based on what i watched on Oman-Malaysia & Yemen-Pakistan (the first leg) I think Yemen has better individual skills than Malaysia and can be dangerous in counter-attacks.
Hello! I'm from Bangladesh. I think this will be the toughest group for Bangladesh- Australia Qatar Lebanon North Korea Bangladesh And this can be less tough- China PR Vietnam Maldives Bhutan Bangladesh Personally I would love Bangladesh to face Australia. Iraq and Jordan are the teams against whom we've never played before in the senior level. And we've never played against Australia at any level. And I want to be with teams from ASEAN. Fed up playing against the teams from west. I won't mind playing against any of the likes of Japan, Korea Republic, Iran etc. But I want Australia and atleast one ASEAN nation in our group. It will be fascinating to play Australia away. Bangladesh is a young team. 2nd round will be a big learning experience for us. Hopefully we will qualify for 3rd round of Asian Cup qualifier and give a proper fight there to get a place into the finals.
It's interesting the differences in Pots between the FIFA rankings, Elo and RTB (my preference). Pot1 FIFA | Elo | RTB Iran | Japan | Japan Japan |Iran | Iran South Korea | South Korea | Australia Australia | Australia | South Korea UAE | UAE | UAE Uzbekistan | Uzbekistan | Uzbekistan China | China | China Iraq | Iraq | Bahrain Pot2 FIFA | Elo | RTB Oman | Qatar | Qatar Saudi Arabia | Oman | Jordan Qatar | Syria | Iraq Jordan | Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia Bahrain | Bahrain | Oman Kuwait | Jordan | Syria Vietnam | Kuwait | North Korea Syria | North Korea | Kuwait Pot3 FIFA | Elo | RTB Afghanistan | Lebanon | Lebanon Thailand | Thailand | Thailand Philippines | Palestine | Philippines Palestine | Tajikistan | Vietnam Maldives | Turkmenistan | Palestine Tajikistan | Vietnam | Turkmenistan Lebanon | Philippines | Afghanistan India | Malaysia | Tajikistan Pot4 FIFA | Elo | RTB East Timor | Indonesia | Myanmar |Kyrgyzstan | Yemen Indonesia North Korea | Singapore | Malaysia Myanmar | Hong Kong | India Turkmenistan | Afghanistan | Hong Kong Bhutan | Kyrgyzstan | Bangladesh Singapore | India | Maldives Indonesia | Maldives | Kyrgyzstan Pot5 FIFA | Elo | RTB Malaysia | Myanmar | Singapore Guam | Bangladesh | Bhutan Bangladesh | Laos | East Timor Hong Kong | Guam | Yemen Yemen | Taiwan | Cambodia Laos | Cambodia | Guam Taiwan | East Timor | Laos Cambodia | Bhutan | Taiwan
So by RTB the strongest group would theoretically be Japan Bahrain Lebanon North Korea Malaysia The weakest group Iraq Vietnam Maldives East Timor Taiwan Using Elo the strongest would be Japan Qatar Lebanon North Korea Malaysia The Weakest Group Iraq Vietnam Maldives Bhutan Cambodia
Pretty accurate actually, I think the ELO one is the best, I agree with both the strongest and weakest group.
There could potentially be a group like China Vietnam Maldives Bhutan Guam Which could see a team like Vietnam making the last last round of wcq's
Group of Death: Australia Saudi Arabia Thailand Korea DPR Malaysia Ideal Group: Uzbekistan / China Saudi Arabia India Timor-Leste Bhutan