It’s still a year away, but the 2015 Asian Cup is the next big thing after the World Cup. Today, the AFC revealed the pots for the group stage draw. The draw will take place next week on March 26.
Pot A
Australia (hosts)
Japan
Uzbekistan
Iran
Pot B
SOUTH KOREA
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Pot C
Oman
China
Iraq
Qatar
Pot D
Bahrain
Kuwait
North Korea
*2014 Challenge Cup winner
There are eight teams in the Challenge Cup (to be played in May). They are: Maldives, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Philippines, Afghanistan, and Laos.
The pots, as far as I can tell are based on the FIFA rankings within the AFC.
So, theoretically Korea could get a group of Japan (A), China (C), and North Korea (D). Although I’m sure the AFC would hate to see so three bigger teams get drawn together in the group stage. Anyway, it poses to be an interesting tournament.
Who do you want Korea to draw? Leave your dream group in the comments!
Lol they’re using the rankings xD.
YESSS WE MIGHT GET IRAN IN THE GROUP STAGES
Hahahahahaha Stupid FIFA
Wow thats lame. Oh well…good for us.
Pot A just cracks me up….Something tells me more than 1 team is really mad here.
Korea’s FIFA ranking went down after beating Greece and Uzbekistan is literally ONE RATING higher than Korea lol. Does this mean Korea will have easier knockout stages?
Korea went up one ranking (from 61 to 60) after the Greece game. Uzbekistan is five places (55) higher than Korea overall. They are one rating higher amongst AFC teams. The seedings don’t have any impact on the knockout stages. It will depend on how the actual draw shakes out. Honestly Korea being in pot B is largely irrelevant given the disparity between Asia’s top 5-6 teams and the rest. There will be one strong team, one medium team, and two weak teams. Each group will likely have clear favorites on who should emerge. The only interesting/challenging thing about it is that Korea could get drawn in the same group with Japan.
Oh my bad I didn’t mean Korea’s ranking went down I meant Korea’s points from ranking calculation went down from 556 to 552.
Ah I see.