[naervod]

Thought I'd bump this up as a lot of time has passed.

Qatar qualify automatically as hosts and Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea are automatic qualifiers as the top three from the 2007 Asian Cup. India qualify automatically as winners of the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008. There is a spot reserved for the 2010 winners of that competition as well, and if India were to win again then the runners-up would take the spot.

From the qualifying groups, Bahrain, Japan, Uzbekistan, UAE, Syria, China and Iran have qualified and I believe there is only one round left with three spots up for grabs. Two of Kuwait (8 points +1 GD), Australia (8 points +1 GB), and Oman (7 points 0 GD) will qualify from Group B - Australia hosts already eliminated Indonesia and Oman hosts Kuwait, both on 3 March. The last spot is in Group E, where Iran have already qualified leaving Thailand (6 points +1 GD), Singapore (6 points -8 GD), and Jordan (5 points -1 GD) to battle it out. Iran hosts Thailand, Jordan hosts Singapore, also on 3 March.

Australia will qualify no doubt, but the rest is a tossup. As a fan of the underdog I would like to see teams like Oman and Jordan qualify, and I think they have a decent shot, so we'll see.

 

[naervod]

No problem at all! I've had loads of free time this month (and am plain fed up with the way things are going at Torino) so have been trying to spend some time learning more about world football, hence some of my posts, so it's very nice to know you appreciate them. Sorry if they're a bit wordy, many times when I start writing it just keeps coming and coming.

Also, the J-League is quite interesting to me, they used to have an hour-long weekly highlights show a while back here in the States, but I think they discontinued it. It was fun to watch and I like the Japanese supporters. Also, because of the large Asian community in San Francisco, my hometown, I have seen a few Asian national teams (including Japan, China, and South Korea) play matches here.

That looks like a solid group of forwards for the Kirin Cup. Isn't it usually played in May though? I have been following the Chile national team since I studied there last year and I remember them playing in the tournament (and not doing so well, but they did not have any foreign-based players IIRC). Also, who is the third team besides Venezuela? Venezuela is a pretty solid side and have improved greatly in the past decade from being the whipping boys of South America, but I still think that Japan are definitely favorites to win that one.