2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for Asia.

44 Asian teams are affiliated with FIFA, but Cambodia, Philippines, Bhutan and Brunei decided not to take part, and Myanmar was banned from the competition (for refusing to play a qualifier in Iran during 2002 qualifying), so a total of 39 teams took part, competing for 4.5 places in the World Cup.

The qualification was composed of three rounds. Only the 14 last ranked teams according to FIFA took part in the Preliminary Round, where they were paired 2-by-2 and played home-and-away knock-out matches. The 7 winners joined the other 25 teams in the Second Round, where those 32 teams were divided in 8 groups of four teams each. The teams in each group would play against each other home-and-away, and the team with most points in each group would advance to the Third Round.

In the Third Round, the 8 remaining teams were divided in two groups of 4 teams each, that would again play against each other in a home-and-away basis. The two teams with most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The two third placed teams would play-off against each other home-and-away. Winner of this play-off would play against the fourth placed team in the Final Round of CONCACAF in an intercontinental play-off for a place in the World Cup.

Tiebreakers

If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked as follows:

1. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
2. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
3. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
4. goal difference in all group matches
5. greater number of goals scored in all group matches
6. a play-off on neutral ground, with extra time and penalties if necessary (in qualifying)
7. drawing of lots (at the final event)

This is a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker.

First round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Turkmenistan	13–0	Afghanistan	11–0	2–0
Chinese Taipei	6–1	Macau	3–0	3–1
Bangladesh	0–4	Tajikistan	0–2	0–2
Laos	0–3	Sri Lanka	0–0	0–3
Pakistan	0–6	Kyrgyzstan	0–2	0–4
Mongolia	0–13	Maldives	0–1	0–12

Guam and Nepal were scheduled to play against each other on November 21 and 25; Nepal withdrew, so Guam progressed to the 2nd round, but Guam later withdrew.

FIFA then decided to elect a "lucky loser", to select the best of the teams that lost, to advance to the Second Round.

The losers were compared, using the following criteria to break ties: a) number of points; b) goal difference; c) goals scored.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Laos	2	0	1	1	0	3	−3	1
Bangladesh	2	0	0	2	0	4	−4	0
Macau	2	0	0	2	1	6	−5	0
Pakistan	2	0	0	2	0	6	−6	0
Afghanistan	2	0	0	2	0	13	−13	0
Mongolia	2	0	0	2	0	13	−13	0

Laos advanced to the Second Round.

Second round

In the second round, the 25 teams who received byes, as well as the 7 play-off round winners, were split into eight groups of four teams each. Teams played home-and-away games with the other teams in their group, and the top-ranked team qualified for the third round.

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Iran 6 5 0 1 22 4 +18 15  Jordan 6 4 0 2 10 6 +4 12  Qatar 6 3 0 3 16 8 +8 9  Laos 6 0 0 6 3 33 −30 0   Iran  – 0–1 7–0 3–1 Jordan  0–2 – 5–0 1–0 Laos  0–7 2–3 – 1–6 Qatar  2–3 2–0 5–0 –

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Uzbekistan 6 5 1 0 16 3 +13 16  Iraq 6 3 2 1 17 7 +10 11  Palestine 6 2 1 3 11 11 0 7  Chinese Taipei 6 0 0 6 3 26 −23 0   Iraq  – 4–1 6–1 1–2 Palestine  1–1 – 8–0 0–3 Chinese Taipei  1–4 0–1 – 0–1 Uzbekistan  1–1 3–0 6–1 –

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Japan 6 6 0 0 16 1 +15 18  Oman 6 3 1 2 14 3 +11 10  India 6 1 1 4 2 18 −16 4  Singapore 6 1 0 5 3 13 −10 3   India  – 0–4 1–5 1–0 Japan  7–0 – 1–0 1–0 Oman  0–0 0–1 – 7–0 Singapore  2–0 1–2 0–2 –

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Kuwait 6 5 0 1 15 2 +13 15  China PR 6 5 0 1 14 1 +13 15  Hong Kong 6 2 0 4 5 15 −10 6  Malaysia 6 0 0 6 2 18 −16 0   China PR  – 7–0 1–0 4–0 Hong Kong  0–1 – 0–2 2–0 Kuwait  1–0 4–0 – 6–1 Malaysia  0–1 1–3 0–2 –

Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  North Korea 6 3 2 1 11 5 +6 11  United Arab Emirates 6 3 1 2 6 6 0 10  Thailand 6 2 1 3 9 10 −1 7  Yemen 6 1 2 3 6 11 −5 5   North Korea  – 4–1 0–0 2–1 Thailand  1–4 – 3–0 1–1 United Arab Emirates  1–0 1–0 – 3–0 Yemen  1–1 0–3 3–1 –

Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Bahrain 6 4 2 0 15 4 +11 14  Syria 6 2 2 2 7 7 0 8  Tajikistan 6 2 1 3 5 9 −4 7  Kyrgyzstan 6 1 1 4 5 12 −7 4   Bahrain  – 5–0 2–1 4–0 Kyrgyzstan  1–2 – 1–1 1–2 Syria  2–2 0–1 – 2–1 Tajikistan  0–0 2–1 0–1 –

Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  South Korea 6 4 2 0 9 2 +7 14  Lebanon 6 3 2 1 11 5 +6 11  Vietnam 6 1 1 4 5 9 −4 4  Maldives 6 1 1 4 5 14 −9 4   South Korea  – 2–0 2–0 2–0 Lebanon  1–1 – 3–0 0–0 Maldives  0–0 2–5 – 3–0 Vietnam  1–2 0–2 4–0 –

Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Saudi Arabia 6 6 0 0 14 1 +13 18  Turkmenistan 6 2 1 3 8 10 –2 7  Indonesia 6 2 1 3 8 12 –4 7  Sri Lanka 6 0 2 4 4 11 −7 2   Indonesia  – 1–3 1–0 3–1 Saudi Arabia  3–0 – 3–0 3–0 Sri Lanka  2–2 0–1 – 2–2 Turkmenistan  3–1 0–1 2–0 –

Third round

In the third round, the 8 teams who won their groups in the earlier round were split into two groups of four teams each. Teams played home-and-away games with the other teams in their group, and the top two teams qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Meanwhile, the third-placed teams entered a play-off to determine who would contest the AFC–CONCACAF play-off.

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Saudi Arabia 6 4 2 0 10 1 +9 14  South Korea 6 3 1 2 9 5 +4 10  Uzbekistan 6 1 2 3 7 11 −4 5  Kuwait 6 1 1 4 4 13 −9 4   South Korea  – 2–0 0–1 2–1 Kuwait  0–4 – 0–0 2–1 Saudi Arabia  2–0 3–0 – 3–0 Uzbekistan  1–1 3–2 1–1 –

• Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Uzbekistan advanced to the AFC playoffs.

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Japan 6 5 0 1 9 4 +5 15  Iran 6 4 1 1 7 3 +4 13  Bahrain 6 1 1 4 4 7 −3 4  North Korea 6 1 0 5 5 11 −6 3   Bahrain  – 0–0 0–1 2–3 Iran  1–0 – 2–1 1–0 Japan  1–0 2–1 – 2–1 North Korea  1–2 0–2 0–2 –

• Japan and Iran qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Bahrain advanced to the AFC playoffs.

Fourth round

Teams finishing 3rd in the third round groups played each other to determine a possible 5th qualifier from Asia. The first leg was originally played on 3 September 2005 but the match was ordered to be replayed by FIFA after a refereeing mistake. With Uzbekistan leading the tie 1-0, a penalty was awarded to them but the referee disallowed the resulting goal and offered an indirect freekick to Bahrain for encroachment. Uzbekistan had formally requested for the match to be recorded as an automatic 3-0 victory.^[1]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Uzbekistan	1–1 (a)	Bahrain	1–1	0–0

Bahrain advanced to the AFC–CONCACAF play-off on the away goals rule.

Inter-confederation play-offs

The Fourth Round winner then played the fourth-placed team of the CONCACAF qualifying group, Trinidad and Tobago, in a home-and-away play-off. The winner of this play-off qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Trinidad and Tobago	2–1	Bahrain	1–1	1–0

Qualified teams

The following four teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Saudi Arabia	Third Round Group 1 winners	8 June 2005	3 (1994, 1998, 2002)
Japan	Third Round Group 2 winners}	8 June 2005	2 (1998, 2002)
South Korea	Third Round Group 1 runners-up	8 June 2005	6 (1954, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
Iran	Third Round Group 2 runners-up	8 June 2005	2 (1978, 1998)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

9 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References

External links

• Results