2018 World Cup Qualifying: Day 2

Today were the second legs of several home-and-away playoffs between the very lowest ranked teams in the Asian Confederation. The big news is that Bhutan, ranked lowest at 209th according to FIFA, defeated Sri Lanka to advance to Round 2.

India, Timor-Leste, Chinese Taipei, and Cambodia also advanced thus making Mongolia, Nepal, Macau, Brunei, and Sri Lanka the first teams officially eliminated from Russia 2018.

The second leg of the Yemen-Pakistan matchup has been postponed, to be played in a neutral location, following violence in Lahore where the match was to be played today. The first leg was also played in neutral territory due to security concerns in Yemen, who currently lead 3-1.

The six winners will be drawn into 8 groups of 5 teams each for home-and-away group play starting on 11 June.

Next up: CONCACAF begins first round play on 22 March with Barbados at home against U.S. Virgin Islands.

Qualifying for World Cup 2018 Started Today

Over in Asia, the 12 lowest ranked teams (according to the FIFA world rankings) played the first tie in a home-and-away playoff. The second legs will be played on the 17th, thus eliminating the first six teams from WC 2018.

The 12 matchups are:

India - Nepal

Yemen - Pakistan

Timor-Leste - Mongolia

Cambodia - Macau

Chinese Taipei - Brunei

Sri Lanka - Bhutan

Bhutan is the lowest-ranked team in the world at 209 and they defeated Sri Lanka away 1-0 in front of 3,500 stunned fans. 21-year old Tshering Dorji scored in the 84th minute to give his nation their first ever World Cup qualification win.

Macau and Mongolia will have challenging three-goal deficits to overcome in their second legs. The other teams are all still very much alive.

CONCACAF qualifying will begin on 23 March.

Japan Qualifies

I missed it the other day, but Japan became the first team apart from host nation Brazil to qualify for next year's World Cup. That leaves 113 nations vying for 30 spots.

Both Uzbekistan and South Korea (playing each other) can qualify with a win on the 11th.

A Bit More CONCACAF Action

The US Virgin Islands defeated the British Virgin Islands 2-0 in the first leg of their matchup.

8 Down, 164 To Go

That is, 164 more nations will be eliminated in qualifying rounds before the start of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

In addition to East Timor eliminated yesterday, today saw a few interesting second leg match-ups out of the Asian Confederation.

Chinese Taipei almost pulled out an upset over Malaysia, winning the second match 3-2 for a 4-4 aggregate score, but Malaysia won on away goals. They face Singapore later in the month.

Bangladesh knocked out Pakistan and will play Jordan in the second round.

After winning the first leg 4-2, Cambodia looked poised to advance. But Laos opened with two goals in the first half hour, which was all they needed to advance. But then Cambodia answered just before the interval. Then Laos opened the second half with an immediate goal to put them back on top 3-1, then scored an insurance goal less than ten minutes later. But when Cambodia got one back in the 75th minute that put the two teams dead even in aggregate. In extra time Laos tallied another 2 goals to give themselves a 6-2 home leg victory for an 8-6 aggregate win and a trip to China on 23 July.

Sri Lanka were eliminated by the Philippines, who will face Kuwait now.

Afghanistan managed a 1-1 draw against Palestine today, but that wasn't enough to overcome the 2-0 deficit of the first leg. Palestine will face Thailand next.

Vietnam trounced all over Macau again, this time 7-1. They will play Qatar.

Finally, it looked like Myanmar and Mongolia were headed to extra time when Myanmar added one more in the 85th minute to earn a date with Oman in round two.

The Road to Brazil 2014...

...is going to be nearly impossible for Turks and Caicos after their 0-4 loss at home to Bahamas yesterday. 2nd leg to be played on Saturday. Exciting!

Lots of First Round Asian matches today.

East Timor First Team Eliminated from 2014 World Cup

The second leg of the Nepal - Timor-Leste matchup was held today. Nepal won 5-0 making the aggregate 7-1.

Nepal advance to the second round of Asian qualifying where they will face Jordan later this month.

More first round Asian action tomorrow.

The Road to Brazil 2014

World Cup qualification continued in the Asian zone yesterday with the first leg of several home-and-away playoffs taking place between a whole bunch of nations that have virtually no chance of making the finals.

Most of the matches were fairly close with Malaysia and Nepal earning 2-1 victories over Chinese Taipei and Timor-Leste, respectively.

Palestine defeated Afghanistan 2-0 away, giving them an excellent chance to advance to the second round.

The Philippines only managed a 1-1 draw against Sri Lanka, who struck first in the 43rd minute. The equalizer was scored by American Nate Burkey early in the second half.

Vietnam exacted a punishing 6-0 victory over lowly Macau.

Pakistan lost 0-3 to Bangladesh and Cambodia won 4-2 over Laos.

Finally, Mongolia edged Myanmar 1-0.

The second legs will be played on 2 and 3 July with the aggregate winners advancing to play a bunch of other Asian teams that will not make it to the World Cup in 2014.

Belize Status Up in the Air

So after I posted about the big barnstormer Belize vs. Montserrat, I waited with anticipation the follow-up leg. But the Belize National Team has been suspended for governmental interference. The second leg was postponed. No determination has yet been made as to whether the match will be rescheduled. If it is, it must be played before 10 July.

We wait.

Prepping 2014

UPDATE: Belize took this one 5-2. That means Montserrat (an island nation lacking sufficient coastline to even run a marathon) will have to win their away leg by 4 goals or score at least 6 goals but win by a margin of 3.

Can you believe this? The first qualifier for Brazil 2014 is being played as I write. Yes, the next World Cup tournament is still 3 years away, but that's how long it takes to weed out the insignificant national sides like Montserrat and Belize, (ranked 202 and 172 in the world, respectively) who are playing each other in the first leg of a two match playoff that will see one of them as the very first team eliminated from the next World Cup (not counting Brunei, Bhutan, Guam and Mauritania, who have not entered the competition). The second leg will be played in Belize on 19 June.

By the way, this is the first of 832 qualifying matches that will be played over the course of the next 2 1/2 years.