Mateo Corbo's Tackle
Level: Chris Maguire
(79 Apps, 22 Gls)
Just qualified for their first ever World Cup with a 0-0 draw in UAE. Fair play to them.
World Cup Uzbekistan
- Thread starter Mateo Corbo's Tackle
- Start date
Level: Chris Maguire
I do like a new, obscure country at a World Cup, suppose it will become more common with FIFA increasing the participants but Uzbekistan certainly fit the bill, almost makes me hope Scotland qualify so that we can see a Uzbek victory over them.
vcool
Level: Jamie Brooks
(53 Apps, 13 Gls)
They are good team. Some of the squad are from U23. We ( Indonesia ) met them in AFC U23 2024, we lost in Semifinal. Lino met Khusanov on that match. Abdulkodir Khusanov career climb very fast after that and Man City bought him.
They are very discipline and have strong physique and play with European style.
Wish them all the best in WC2026
They are very discipline and have strong physique and play with European style.
Wish them all the best in WC2026
Hopefully you join them mate, fingers crossed.
Orkney Islands Yellow
Level: Phil Whitehead
(238 Apps)
Central Asia is a part of the world that fascinates me. A region that tends to keep itself to itself bar a few boxers and fighters but has ornate cities with towering skyscrapers.
Very nice!
I read a travel book from around when the Soviet Union had collapsed about the Silk Road and Central Asia, big countries and cities that I had never heard of that had loads of history that we never really hear about.
Have to agree with you about how interesting it is as a region, can’t wait for Ian Wright and Gary Neville to do that Justice next summer.
werthersoriginal
Level: James Constable
(280 Apps, 106 Gls)
My wife just told me about the Georgian language- unrelated to any others and using a completely mad script!
Carlislehotdog
Level: Jamie Brooks
(53 Apps, 13 Gls)
Good luck to them, went to Tashkent last year and got a Pakhtakor shirt from the shop outside the big concrete soviet stadium, was sad there wasn't a game on during the visit. Might take it out for a jog in place of the yellow this weekend.
Jordan also qualified for their first ever World Cup yesterday.
If anything, that has come even more out of the blue - the Uzbeks were knocking on the door in 2014 and 2018, and have key players playing at Man City and Roma.
Almost the entire Jordanian squad play in Asia (just one guy that plays at Rennes, and one guy who plays in Luxembourg) and they didn't even get to the final group stage in qualifying the past two cycles.
Think both were helped by all the Gulf States being a bit pants in qualifying for some reason this cycle. Although one or two of them will probably get in anyways because of the increased number of spots.......
If anything, that has come even more out of the blue - the Uzbeks were knocking on the door in 2014 and 2018, and have key players playing at Man City and Roma.
Almost the entire Jordanian squad play in Asia (just one guy that plays at Rennes, and one guy who plays in Luxembourg) and they didn't even get to the final group stage in qualifying the past two cycles.
Think both were helped by all the Gulf States being a bit pants in qualifying for some reason this cycle. Although one or two of them will probably get in anyways because of the increased number of spots.......
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Are they the first two to qualify for the 2026 World Cup?
- Year of First Game
- 1980
No, Japan were first to qualify (if you ignore Argentina who are holders, plus the host countries). Iran and New Zealand have already qualified as well.
Errrr.....actually Argentina didn't qualify as holders. They did away with that a couple of cycles ago. They qualified because they've absolutely bossed CONMEBOL qualifying.
South Korea qualified yesterday as well, but I didn't think that was worth mentioning because the last time they didn't was 1982!
I travelled through Tashkent on the way to Singapore with my folks in 1989 just as everything was going tits up with the Soviet Union, was an interesting place indeed with a huge TV tower and just rows and rows of grey tower blocks and Ladas cutting you up on the streets. We had to surrender our passports in both Moscow and Tashkent before leaving the airport, and our bus quite clearly had one KGB fella on it all the time (looked like Peter Sellars in the Pink Panther).
At the airport we were delayed by engine problems so the authorities laid us out some food and drink. Vodka was free but the blinis cost money...my dad was happy enough with that arrangement. We wanted to play cards so we manoevered some chairs and tables around, and when we transited back through six weeks later they were all in the same place. Got a knock-off USSR football top that I still have upstairs somewhere as well.
At the airport we were delayed by engine problems so the authorities laid us out some food and drink. Vodka was free but the blinis cost money...my dad was happy enough with that arrangement. We wanted to play cards so we manoevered some chairs and tables around, and when we transited back through six weeks later they were all in the same place. Got a knock-off USSR football top that I still have upstairs somewhere as well.
Were your family spies? We just went Dorset or Majorca on holiday, you appear to have grown up in a John Le Carre novel.
Blimey, Italy 3-0 down at halftime to Norway in their first World Cup qualifier.
Italians might be going for a trilogy of missed World Cups!
Italians might be going for a trilogy of missed World Cups!
Nothing so romantic. One of my mum's best friends moved to Singapore and invited us to stay one summer, going with Aeroflot via Paris, Moscow, Tashkent and New Delhi was about half the cost of flying direct. Certainly a long old journey, made even longer by the aforementioned stopovers.
Belgium Yellow
Level: John Aldridge
(141 Apps, 90 Gls)
Samarkand is the place to go in Uzbekistan
Orkney Islands Yellow
Level: Phil Whitehead
(238 Apps)
Wonder why Kazakhstan, which borders China, is in European qualifiers but Uzbekistan isn't?
A little bit of Kazakhstan is West of the Urals, which I think is the demarcation line used to decide if a country is in Europe.
Apparently they made the switch from AFC to UEFA in 2002 because they thought that the better competition would improve the standards of football in their country.
Mateo Corbo's Tackle
Level: Chris Maguire
(79 Apps, 22 Gls)
If the Urals rule is applied, it’s weird that Turkmenistan (more proportion west of the “Urals line” than Kazakhstan) are in Asian group.
Not saying you’re wrong, it’s just weird.
Orkney Islands Yellow
Level: Phil Whitehead
(238 Apps)
Israel borders Egypt (African qualifiers) and Jordan (Asian qualifiers) but play in European qualifiers. Political/security reasons?
The European/Asian continent divide is pretty sketchy, the urals bit doesn’t really make much sense as it doesn’t run along anywhere near the whole length, huge parts where you can just walk across flat plains. A lot of geographers don’t consider it, geographically speaking, two separate continents.
It’s more a cultural/political/ethnic divide, which doesn’t really explain why Kazakhstan are in it other than if you are anywhere near the “border” you can probably just go in whichever one you want (unless you are Israel), can’t see FIFA caring as long as you pay your subs/bribes.
I wonder if Russia will try to go into the Asian group as an easier way back into football, it certainly fits geographically but I doubt the clubs want to give up Champions league money, then again they are getting nothing at the moment.
It’s more a cultural/political/ethnic divide, which doesn’t really explain why Kazakhstan are in it other than if you are anywhere near the “border” you can probably just go in whichever one you want (unless you are Israel), can’t see FIFA caring as long as you pay your subs/bribes.
I wonder if Russia will try to go into the Asian group as an easier way back into football, it certainly fits geographically but I doubt the clubs want to give up Champions league money, then again they are getting nothing at the moment.
If you were spies this is the sort of answer you would give though.
Israel were part of AFC for 20 years (in fact, one of the founding members) but gradually predominantly Muslim countries stopped playing them. Things got farcical when they nearly qualified for the 1958 World Cup without playing a game. Wales ultimately beat them in a playoff.
They then played in UEFA qualifiers for the 1982 World Cup despite not being a UEFA member and then in OFC for a couple of qualifying campaigns before returning to UEFA in 1991 and formally joining in 1994.
Of course, nothing of interest has happened in Israel ever since.