2018 WCQ seeds and draw

[GolfePersique]

The preliminary groups for WC qualification in the asian zone will be drawn on 14th of April.
This will be based on the FIFA ranking released today.

Seed 1 (Ranking 1-8)
Iran
Japan
Korea
Australia
UAE
Uzbekistan
China
Iraq

Seed 2 (Ranking 9-16)
KSA
Oman
Qatar
Jordan
Bahrain
Vitenam
Syria
Kuwait

Seed 3 (Ranking 17-24)
Afghanistan
Philippines
Palestine
Maldives
Thailand
Tajikstan
Lebanon
India

Seed 4 (Ranking 25-32)
Timor-Leste
Kyrgyzstan
Korea DPR
Myanmar
Turkmenistan
Indonesia
Singapore
Bhutan

Seed 5 (Ranking 33-40)
Malaysia
Hong Kong
Bangladesh
Yemen
Chinese Taipei
Guam
Laos
Cambodia

The link to live event

[BacheLot]

so how does the selection go from here and how do groups form..?

[GolfePersique]

so how does the selection go from here and how do groups form..?

Source AFC

The 40 nations will be drawn into eight groups of five teams and compete according to a double round robin format, and the Round 2 qualification matches will be held from June 11, 2015 to March 29, 2016.

The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup finals.

[Bessos]

Afghanistan on top of seed 3?!

[Bessos]

In my opinion these would be the easiest and ''toughest'' possible groups we can be in:

Easy
Iran - Vietnam - Maldives - Bhutan - Guam

''Tough''
Iran - Qatar - Thailand - DPR Korea - Hong Kong?

By the way how did DPR Korea end up in the fourth pot? They're usually not THAT bad in Asia

I also heard people mention that a group where we don't need to travel much will benefit us, and so this would be the most comfortable possible group when it comes to traveling & weather:

Iran - Kuwait - Afghanistan - Turkmenistan - Yemen

[GolfePersique]

Afghanistan on top of seed 3?!

http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranki...e/men/afc.html

yes, they are ranked as 17th asian team.

[shayan_esteghlali]

I want saudi arabia in our group, its about time we taught these saudis a lesson

[peiman92]

We will rest on matchday 1 and will play away to a team from seed 4 on matchday 2. This is according to the schedule on Wikipedia which is the same as the one who was used in the final round of last wcq. We should try to arrange a good friendly on 11 june!

[ShiroKhorshid]

I hope we get Saudi Arabia in our group, its about time we play them. The other 3 should be easy and not far away, so maybe something like this wouldnt be bad:

Iran
Saudi Arabia
Afghanistan/Tajikistan/Palestine
Kyrgystan/Turmenistan
Bangladesh/Yemen

[Doctor DOOM]

Iran
Ksa
North Korea
Malaysia

[AminGP]

Iraq got lucky and dodged a ball.

[Bi-honar]

Toughest draw: Iran, S. Arabia, Thailand, Korea DPR and Yemen.

Easiest draw: Iran, Vietnam, India, Bhutan, Hong Kong

We don't really need to panic if we end up with something close to the easiest draw.

But if it's anything like the toughest draw it's going to be one hell of a tough start and possibly an early exit, considering we're coach-less at the moment and only the top team and the top four 2nd placed teams make it to the next round.

It's very likely that 1-3 Pot 1 teams and more than half the pot 2 teams will be eliminated from WCQ in this round.

[ehsan singapore]

we need a draw that does not have alot of traveling, but most of the easy team are in south east asia,and central asia, we can go saudi and wipe them hard as well,just no north korea, cause is both far and annoying to play there

[ali alipour]

Hopefully we can draw Turkmenistan they are surprisingly the only team in asia that we dont have a positive record agaisnt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_na...ll-time_record

[Ghermez Agha]

I pray we get KSA