Japan, Australia and S. Korea are First Teams to Qualify for WC 2010 (Unless, of Course, you count South Africa)
(I found this photo of Japan fans quite disturbing. Let’s hope those are Japanese flags on his chest and not the result of piercings gone horribly wrong.)
In the world of World Cup qualifying, which would you prefer for your team? That they qualify for World Cup 2010 by having to fight for every point right up until the last second? Or that they qualify a full year in advance and have that year to coast and rest?
Different confederations have different philosophies on this, with the Asian Football Confederation coming down on the “get it over with and rest” side of the issue. As of today, three of the four (or five) AFC slots have been finalized, with the fourth slot to be decided no later than June 17.
After that, the third place teams from both qualifying groups will do battle for the right to play against the top team from Oceania for the AFC-or-Oceania slot.
(For a primer on AFC qualifying process, including why the heck Australia is here, stop by this post.)
The early achievers who’ve already qualified are Japan, Australia and Korea Republic (S. Korea).
Japan punched their ticket to South Africa today with a 1-0 win over Uzbekistan this lone goal from Shinji Okazaki in the ninth minute.
Australia only needed a point from their match with Qatar, and that’s what they got in a nil-nil draw. I’d post highlights, but… Come on, people. Nil-nil. Would you really watch them? (Plus, I can’t find any. If you’re really interested, keep checking at 101 Great Goals or TV Golo.)
And finally, S. Korea advances with a 2-0 win over United Arab Emirates, with goals by Park Chu-Young and Ki Sung Yueng.
The other AFC result:
06/06/09 Korea DPR 0:0 Iran
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Comments
By Rob | June 6th, 2009 at 2:19 pm 
Congrats to all the fans of those teams. Pretty happy to see Japan in, their fans always seem to be pretty colourful.
By Seth | June 6th, 2009 at 2:45 pm Add Holland to the list as well. 4 down, 28 to go 
By aj | June 6th, 2009 at 3:17 pm I’m pretty sure South Africa has qualified as well. 27 to go.
Posted from 
United States
By Laurie | June 6th, 2009 at 3:26 pm Seth, Holland hadn’t finished their match when I wrote the post, so I can claim genuine and excusable ignorance.
For the South Africa thing, I have no excuse. (Except that it’s been a really long week. Does that count?) :-/
Posted from United States
By Laurie | June 6th, 2009 at 3:31 pm Although come to think of it, I could probably pick nits and argue about the technical definition of “qualified.” But alas, I can’t change the fact that the number (before the end of the Netherlands game) should have been 28.
Posted from United States
By Laurie | June 6th, 2009 at 3:32 pm And now I can’t even think of a way to change my headline to reflect the facts. Thanks a lot, guys!
Posted from United States
By Laurie | June 6th, 2009 at 3:34 pm All righty, in the interest of full disclosure and for those coming late to the party, just so you don’t feel left out by these comments, my original and factually inaccurate headline read: “3 Down, 29 to Go: Japan, Australia and S. Korea are First Teams to Qualify for WC 2010″
I am now changing that to…something else entirely.
Posted from United States
By Al | June 6th, 2009 at 9:48 pm I flinched and grabbed my chest with both hands when I first saw that picture
Posted from United States
By Countries Qualified 2010 | June 7th, 2009 at 6:23 am Excellent to see these teams qualified for FIFA 2010 in South Africa. Looking forward to the complete list of countries grow in the coming months.
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