Will Korean soccer avoid the thorny path? Draw for the 3rd round of the North and Central American World Cup on the 27th
The final hurdle to qualifying for the 11th consecutive tournament… Tough teams in each port.
Will the Korean soccer team, which dreams of advancing to the finals of the 2026 FIFA North & Central America World Cup for the 11th consecutive time, be able to avoid the thorny path in the Asian third round of qualifiers?
The draw to determine the matchups for the North & Central America World Cup Asian third round of qualifiers will be held at 4 PM Korean time on the 27th at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The 18 countries that will participate in the third preliminary round, which begins with the A-match (match between national teams) in September, will be divided into three groups of six countries each and play the group stage in a home-and-away round robin format. 파워볼사이트
The top two countries in each group, a total of six countries, will receive direct tickets to the World Cup finals.
Those that fall to fifth or sixth place will be eliminated.
The six countries ranked 3rd and 4th are divided into two groups of three countries each and must compete again.
The first-place teams will take two tickets to the World Cup finals, and the second-place teams will face each other to determine which team will advance to the intercontinental playoffs.
Korea, which achieved 5 wins and 1 draw in the second qualifying round, successfully maintained its position in the top 3 in Asia in the FIFA rankings (22nd) this month and was included in Pot 1.
Among the AFC member countries, Japan (17th) and Iran (21st) are the highest FIFA rankings, so they will not face these teams in the third qualifying round.
However, there are many difficult teams in other pots including pot 2, so we should not let our guard down.
Currently, pot 2 includes Australia, ranked 23rd in the FIFA rankings, who competed with Korea for pot 1 until the end, and Qatar, the 2023 AFC Asian Cup winner.
Pot 3 also features Saudi Arabia, which has recently invested astronomical amounts of money in football, and Jordan, which inflicted the pain of a 0-2 defeat on Korea in the Asian Cup semifinals.
Teams with 'Korean wave' coaches are also burdensome.
In pot 4, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), led by former national team coach Paulo Bento, who knows Korean soccer well, is a tough opponent.
Pot 6 also includes Indonesia led by coach Shin Tae-yong and North Korea, which is particularly burdensome due to the hostile conditions of the Pyongyang away game.
Coach Shin brought the pain of failure to advance to the Paris Olympics to Korean soccer by defeating our country led by Coach Hwang Sun-hong with the Indonesian national team in the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.
If we are grouped with these teams with various ill-fated relationships, the final road to the World Cup finals will be a 'rough road'.
The new coach, who the Korea Football Association is looking for through the National Team Strengthening Committee, will be given the task of leading Korean soccer to the World Cup in this third preliminary round as soon as he is appointed.
If our country passes the third preliminary round, we will achieve the 11th consecutive World Cup finals.
Korea has successfully advanced to the World Cup finals 10 times in a row, from the 1986 Mexico tournament to the 2022 Qatar tournament, becoming the 6th country in the world to do so.
Including the 1954 Swiss tournament, it has advanced to the finals for the 11th time in total.
Before Korea, only five countries have advanced to the World Cup 10 or more times in a row: Brazil (22 times), Germany (18 times), Italy (14 times), Argentina (13 times), and Spain (12 times).