The Asiatic continent has four places for the next 2006 World Cup, which will take place in Germany. The 32 national teams that will fight for the privilege of playing the tournament are divided into 32 groups. Only the winner of each group advances to the second stage, where the eight remaining teams will be divided into two new groups of four. The two first placed are automatically qualified to the beer and sauerkraut’s land. The two third placed teams will play a two-leg match, and the winner plays a final two-leg against the fourth placed of Concacaf, which holds North-America, Central-America and
Caribbean.
Japan is in group 3, and will have to eliminate Oman, India and Singapore in the first stage to remain alive in the competition. At the last qualifyings played by Japan, the team achieved its place for the ’98 France World Cup after defeating Oman by 1 to 0 in an away match, in Muscat, and tying by 1 to 1 in the city of Tokyo.
India was defeated by the Japaneses in 1998, at the Asian Games, in Thailand, by 1 to 0. With no better luck, Singapore lost all the four encounters against Japan, the last one being in 2000, at the Asian Nations Cup’s qualifyings, in Macau. The Japanese national won by a 3 to 0 score.
The other groups’ stronger competitors are Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran, China and United Arab Emirates. At the last world cup, hosted in conjunction by South Korea and Japan, China and Saudi Arabia got the places, but the home teams already had the right to play granted.
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