We Are The Reds

it appears Iran are taking the AFC to CAS over their having to play in the Bahrain hub. They have a game in hand, however sit 3 points behind Bahrain and 5 behind Iraq. Their situation is somewhat more precarious than ours and they want to have Iran as a hub. The main problem is Iran has a COVID problem that Bahrain doesn't.

I feel for them, the hubs should be a neutral venue, however it will be difficult to get it to change.

Yeah very strange they can't secure netural venue hubs.

Yeah very strange they can't secure netural venue hubs.

Thinking about it, the final round of qualifiers may be better off as a round-robin competition in a neutral venue. Even if it is spread over several international windows, at least it would halve the amount of games needed to be played and hence reduce risk.

Japan obliterated Myanmar the last week. They look easily the best in the AFC and I would be happy to avoid them in the final round.

No major upsets or changes to the order of after the last round.

Group A: Syria have 7 wins out of 7, but that includes some close games against opposition they should have done better against so the jury is still out as to whether they are an improved side. What is interesting is that they may derail China, who are no guarantee to make it to the next round.

Group C: Tight group with Iraq and Iran on 14 and 12 respectively with Bahrain also on 12 but only 1 game left to play. Iran have Cambodia coming up, which won't count, whilst Iraq play Hong Kong who have proven a tricky customer. The group won't be decided until the final day when Iraq play Iran and Bahrain face Hong Kong. Iran most likely need to beat Iraq to proceed.

Group D: Pretty much to form with Saudi leading Uzbekistan by 2 points. They both should proceed, unless maths works against the second placed side.

Group E: Qatar have smashed it but are not allowed in the final round. Oman only have one game left that counts so need a big win against Afghanistan.

Group F: Japan are through and Tajikistan hasn't done enough to be one of the best second placed teams.

Group G: Tightest of the groups -as predicted! Vietnam are leading and UAE second though Thailand and Malaysia remain in the hunt. UAE need to beat Vietnam on the final day to have a chance of progressing, Vietnam need a win over either of Malaysia or UAE to progress.

Group H: South Korea and Lebanon are tied on top, with Korea ahead by goal difference. With the games ahead both sides should get through to the 3rd round.

All games went to script, with the 0-0 between Jordan and Kuwait being one of the most interesting to us as Jordan are going to most likely need all three to be in the mix for best second-place.

The race for second positions is hot, with Iran currently sitting outside qualification but on the same points (9) as UAE, Uzbekistan and China. Jordan sits one place behind on 8. All of them are playing the top placed team in their group so it will be a hectic final round and given many of the top teams have already qualified and maybe giving fringe players a run (Japan, Syria, Australia, South Korea ) anything could happen.

Oman technically have a game left, however as it is against the bottom placed side in their group (Bangladesh) it won't count in the race for best second position. They are on 12 though, so just have to hope at least one of the teams below them doesn't collect all three points.

Uzbekistan are the biggest side to miss out on the 3rd round. Apart from that it's the usual suspects with Lebanon and Vietnam making the cut.

3rd round draw is July 1st. There will be two groups with 6 pots:

Pot 1: Iran, Japan
Pot 2: South Korea, Australia
Pot 3: Saudi Arabia, Iraq
Pot 4: UAE, China
Pot 5: Syria, Oman
Pot 6: Vietnam, Lebanon

Draw has occurred and the two groups are:

Group 1: Iran, South Korea, UAE, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon
Group 2: Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, China, Oman, Vietnam

Interesting groups with Group 1 arguably having more even sides with Group 2 some of the form teams.

Group 1 will be hard to predict as both Iran, South Korea & UAE have been running hot and cold. For Group 2 Japan, Saudi and Australia have been running hot.

Should be interesting.