I’ve always tried to look at the positives in life and when a disaster besets you, it usually teaches you something about life and yourself. If you can learn from it, then it can make you a better person.
Your pain can even sometimes be someone else’s gain.
Let’s assume that some of the dire predictions about the Socceroos not gaining automatic qualification in the fourth round of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) World Cup qualifying come true. If this happens, who is likely to gain?
There are ten teams remaining in AFC with any chance to make it to Brazil 2014.They have been split into two qualification groups of five, who play each other home and away over eight rounds.
Group A contains South Korea, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Iran and Lebanon. Group B has Australia up against Japan, Oman, Iraq and Jordan.
The top two teams from each group of five will automatically qualify. The countries finishing third in each group will play off home and away to get another chance at World Cup qualification.
The winner of the AFC elimination game will then play the fifth placed country from the South American CONMEBOL Football Association, which could be a team like Columbia, Venezuela or even Uruguay.
At least it won’t be Brazil, who has already qualified automatically as the host nation.
You’d like to think Australia would finish in the top three of the group possibly even second, but let’s say that the ageing Socceroos fail to make it, then which countries would benefit at our misfortune?
You’d also start to believe that Japan would take one of the automatic qualification spots in our group, given their scintillating recent form. Signore Zaccheroni can already start thinking about how to spend his World Cup qualification bonus.
That leaves three other countries: Oman, Jordan and Iraq who could take the second qualification spot or the second chance to playoff against CONMEBOL for the remaining half spot.
As disappointed as we would be, how great would it be for any of these three countries’ players to make it to the FIFA World Cup Finals, how great for the country and their peoples and what wild celebrations would follow in the streets.
Only one of these countries, Iraq, has ever made it to the WC finals before. In 1986 Iraq was drawn in the same group as hosts Mexico, Belgium and Paraguay.
Even though Iraq was eliminated in round one, they had a very good tournament losing only 1-0 to Mexico in front of 104,000 fanatical home spectators. They were also remembered for Iraqi defender Barmeer Shaker being given a one-year suspension by FIFA for spitting at the referee.
Iraq lost the match to Belgium 2-1.
Oman and Jordan have never played in the FIFA World Cup finals. What a fantastic opportunity it would be for those countries to finally make it. You could imagine the great joy and happiness it would bring to their people, possibly even more memorable than the Socceroos’ very first qualification for the FIFA WC Finals in Germany in 1974 and what it brought for this football nation of ours.
Also if the results started going against the ageing Socceroos in this campaign, then it would surely force the hand of Holger Osieck to start to select more of the younger players and up and coming stars of Australian football and give them their chance.
Players like, Robbie Kruse, Nikita Rukavytsya, James Triosi, Chris Herd and many other fringe players would have to be finally given a chance and that wouldn’t be so bad for Australian football either.
Japan look like they’re heading into their Golden Age of Football with some very good players like Honda and Kagawa in the prime of their football lives. Qualification for Brazil 2014 for Japan is now a looming certainty.
Australia’s Golden Era of Football seems to be fading fast and the ageing Socceroos need to call on every last source of energy and guile to get us to Brazil 2014.
And if we don’t make it, that will open the door for Iraq, Oman or Jordan to share in the joy and massive benefits of FIFA World Cup participation and jump start the international football careers of some very promising younger Australians.
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