Saudi Arabia 0-0 Japan in 24th minute. Japan has qualified while saudi needs victory otherwise Australia will go thru. Saudi will have to settle for playoff with Syria.
Asian Countries have broken the myth and arrogance of Australia. They left OFC and came to AFC thinking that it will be easier to qualify. They didnt want to go for playoffs. They will have to do it now-Back to Square One.
Actually they left OFC for playing more matches and for asian cup. So now they are getting more matches. Play on ☺. Similarly, there were talks of new Zealand planning to join AFC in around 2011. I'm just wondering wasn't it good for Australia to join CONEMBOL as they have less teams, though they won't quality easily from there. Since the qualifiers are in league format, they would get more matches.
Australia's major problem isn't lack of teams. Youth development is still behind in Australia and the stigma attached to "football" is still very real. Quality of the A-League is also a reason but is improving. There was a gap between Australia's golden generation and the young guys coming up now (Rogic, Irvine, Mooy, Ryan, Luongo etc.)
Also going to China ruined some guys like Sainsbury and Spiranovic.
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Even Syria(16), Iraq (20) have more top flight teams than Australia
They aren't producing enough players
Also going to China ruined some guys like Sainsbury and Spiranovic.