After this year, Endo deserves respect from everyone who follows the NT. He has been brilliant. Also, give it time, but Maki will be INTEGRAL TO THE ATTACK. He'll give Naka and Endo a fairly tall target at corners and other set pieces. Also Tulio and Nakazawa will be targetted by Naka and Endo. So give Endo and Maki respect. Maki hasn't been terrible this year either. 4 goals in 10 games.
It really is kind of hard to define the midfield in the NT, the players are allowed a free rein when attacking and only Suzuki stays in deep midfield. That was the system that Osim built.
2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification (AFC) Third Round will be decided on 25th November 2007 Pot 1 Australia, Korea Republic, Iran, Saudi Arabia;Japan Pot 2 Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Korea DPR; China PR Pot 3 Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates Pot 4 Qatar, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Singapore The 20 teams will be split into 5 groups of 4. The top two will qualify for the fourth round. All teams play home and away and face the remaining four.
China is the weakest one alongside North Korea in the Pot 2. 1) Uzbekistan destroyed them 3-0 in the AC2007 2) Kuwait kicked out them from the last WCQ. 3) Bahrain nearly qualified for the 2006 WC finals.
draw live: http://www.fifa.com/newscentre/videos/player.html#ch=s10&id=645249 (Video) or http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminarydraw/index.html
Asia's Preliminary Draw has finished. Here's the Groups: GROUP 1 AUSTRALIA CHINA PR IRAQ QATAR GROUP 2 JAPAN BAHRAIN OMAN THAILAND GROUP 3 KOREA REPUBLIC KOREA DPR JORDAN TURKMENISTAN GROUP 4 SAUDI ARABIA UZBEKISTAN LEBANON SINGAPORE GROUP 5 IRAN KUWAIT U.A.E. SYRIA VN
BAHRAIN,OMAN,Thai... 18/02/2004 Japan 1:0 Oman 20/07/2004 Oman 0:1 Japan 24/07/2004 Japan 4:1 Thai 03/08/2004 Japan 4:3 BAHRAIN 13/10/2004 Oman 0:1 Japan 30/03/2005 Japan 1:0 BAHRAIN 03/06/2005 BAHRAIN 0:1 Japan They will not get even a tie.
The possible schedule for Round 3 of the 2010 Asia WCQ, could go something similar to the Final Round Olympic U-22 Qualifiers. The schedule would be pre-determined, before the draw in Durban. It was based on this format: Match-Day 1: 1 v 4, 3 v 2 Match-Day 2: 2 v 1, 4 v 3 Match-Day 3: 1 v 3, 4 v 2 Match-Day 4: 3 v 1, 2 v 4 Match-Day 5: 4 v 1, 2 v 3 Match-Day 6: 1 v 2, 3 v 4 So, all the Pot 1 teams (Australia, Korea Republic, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia) would already know that they would have their 1st and last matches at HOME. This is also the same exact format that was used during the 2006 WC Qualifiers, back in the 2005 Final Round. This is what Japan's NT schedule would POSSIBLY look like for Round 3 of Asia WCQ: Match-Day 1: Japan v Thailand ------ 6 February 2008 (Wednesday) Match-Day 2: Bahrain v Japan ------- 26 March 2008 (Wednesday) Match-Day 3: Japan v Oman -------- 20 August 2008 (Wednesday) Match-Day 4: Oman v Japan -------- 11 October 2008 (Saturday) Match-Day 5: Thailand v Japan ----- 15 October 2008 (Wednesday) Match-Day 6: Japan v Bahrain ------ 19 November 2008 (Wednesday) NOTE: These are the Match Dates listed on the AFC's web-site. http://www.the-afc.com/uploads/Documents/common/cms/afc/AFC_Comps_calendar_2008.pdf More too come on this of course. VN
Group winner and runners-up advance to the 4th round. Total of 10 teams will be divided into two groups of five.