After digesting the groups, this is easily the group of death. Three heavy weights in one group Korea, Iran and Saudi.
Only positive is that we didn't get Uzbek. We got the worst possible draw. Hope players are ready for those middle east trips.
As I said, this will do good for Korea. Now KFA will hopefully buckle their seat belts and do some serious preparation. It's much better than having a relaxed group. All the players the coaches and the association must be alert and learn from lessons we've learnt in the past by playing Iran and Saudi. One thing is at least we know how North Korea is, so that's a relieve. But is it just me? Playing against them is such a boring affair.
Fixtures 2008 9.10 (Wed) North Korea vs Korea 10.15(Wed) Korea vs UAE 11.19(Wed) Saudi vs Korea 2009 2.11(Wed) Iran vs Korea 4.1(Wed) Korea vs North Korea 6.6(Sat) UAE vs Korea 6.10(Wed) Korea vs Saudi 6.17(Wed) Korea vs Iran
group of death is right... but as you've mentioned we always play better with our backs to the wall, so hopefully this will knock some sense into them. time to reel it in. 3'rd place team is sure in for a ride.
Looks like this group needs some serious planning, I hope this put our boys in a position that you must earn the spot by scoring and winning games.
I honestly think this is not a such a bad group. Sure Iran and the Saudis are in it, but at least they dont grassroll as much as their neighbours. I for one would not want to face Bahrain or Uzbek simply beacuse they are in scintillating form, Qatar since they are rather unknown as well. Like someone said, Korea tends to step up their game against difficult opponents.
is it good or bad to have the last 3 games that close to each other? Iran also has similar schedule against NK, UAE, Korea. All others only have 2 games in June. edit: for last game both iran and korea will have played 3 in row and iran has to travel to korea. 6.10 seems kinda bad since saudis rest and korea has to travel back with just 4 days break? dunno.
Damn, I really really really didn't want Saudi Arabia and North Korea. UAE's a pretty annoying team as well.
cut 'n paste from wiki from 2006-2008 afaik 6/22, 2008 Korea DPR D 0-0 WC qual 3/26, 2008 Korea DPR D 0-0 WC qual 2/20, 2008 Korea DPR D 1-1 East Asian Cup 7/22, 2007 Iran D 0-0 (4PK2) AC07 quarter 11/15, 2006 Iran L 0-2 AC07 qual 9/2, 2006 Iran D 1-1 AC07 qual 7/11, 2007 Saudi D 1-1 AC07 group 1/18, 2006 UAE L 0-1 friendly lol prolly not helpful except for n00bs like me
Actually Penalty shootouts are considered a draw. So basically, we haven't won against any of the opponents in the past two years. I'm telling you that it would be funny if Korea makes it to the World Cup by drawing all the games.
We haven't looked like a scoring team except against Turkemanistan which is pathetic. We looked like bad in 06 too until Advocaat took that world trip with the domestic players. But this current team is the worse team I've ever seen in my football memory. At least with Advocaat you could hold out for some hope but Huh is looking like a lost cause. At least Iran and SA are in bad form also. If the team can't put something together, we don't deserve to go to WC.
from FIFA 2006-2008 Saudi Arabia 27/08/2006 W 1:0 UAE Friendly 27/01/2007 L 0:1 UAE Friendly 24/06/2007 W 2:0 UAE Friendly 04/07/2007 D 1:1 NK Friendly 11/07/2007 D 1:1 Korea Continental Final None vs. Iran 2006-2008 Iran 08/08/2006 W 1:0 UAE Friendly 12/01/2007 W 2:0 UAE Friendly 02/06/2008 D 0:0 UAE FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier 07/06/2008 W 1:0 UAE FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier 02/08/2006 D 1:1 Korea Continental Qualifier 15/11/2006 W 2:0 Korea Continental Qualifier 22/07/2007 D 0:0 2:4 PSO Korea Continental Final none vs NK 2006-2008 none vs Saudi 2006-2008 UAE 08/08/2006 L 0:1 Iran Friendly 12/01/2007 L 0:2 Iran Friendly 02/06/2008 D 0:0 Iran FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier 07/06/2008 L 0:1 Iran FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier 27/08/2006 L 0:1 KSA Friendly 27/01/2007 W 1:0 KSA Friendly 24/06/2007 L 0:2 KSA Friendly 18/01/2006 W 1:0 Korea Friendly 01/07/2007 W 1:0 NK Friendly North Korea 20/02/2008 D 1:1 Korea Friendly 26/03/2008 D 0:0 Korea FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier 22/06/2008 D 0:0 Korea FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier 04/07/2007 D 1:1 KSA Friendly 01/07/2007 L 0:1 UAE Friendly none vs Iran 2006-2008 wow, nobody scores more than 2 goals combined (2:0, 1:1, 1:0, 0:0) ... over past 2 years in all of these matches? heheheh every match going to be close?
Those first two games against NK and UAE are absolutely vital, and then the next two away games against Saudi and Iran (which will be the hardest of all 8 games) should pretty much envision our future. We can't let any, and I mean ANY of our home games slip away. We have to win all of our home games, beat UAE and NK away, and a draw against either one of Iran or Saudi away from home should get us to South Africa. That'd make it 19 points total. Wishful thinking, but certainly not impossible. 16 is the magic number. Like I said, this is gonna be a lot of fun.
I'm very happy with this draw as we have the 2 teams that we always struggle with, Saudi and Iran. This will be good conditioning and a reality check before the WC if we manage to qualify. Huh, the KFA and the players better wake up and prepare properly. Saudi and Iran could beat us easily in our current form. Right now we're appalling and playing like we used to back in 1998. The KNT needs to improve dramatically if they want to qualify.