June 27, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1429

BANGKOK, June 26: Despite early hiccups and a few narrow escapes, Asia’s top sides made it through World Cup qualifying and there are few surprises in Friday’s draw for the final round.

The draw in Kuala Lumpur will establish two groups of five teams and the top two from each group will advance to the tournament in South Africa in 2010.

The two third-placed teams will enter a playoff, the winner of which will play the Oceania zone champions for the fifth and final berth.

Australia are seeded first in the draw, followed by South Korea and Iran. Japan and Saudi Arabia are tied for fourth, followed by Bahrain, Uzbekistan, North Korea, UAE and Qatar.

The 10 teams will be separated into four pots based on ranking, with a side from each pot placed in Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’, plus one more from the pot for the four lowest-ranked sides.

The usual suspects stormed, staggered or crept through, with near-perfect records propelling Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan through early and a late fight-back from Iran ensuring their passage.Australia and Bahrain made flying starts but surrendered their unbeaten records towards the end, while World Cup regulars South Korea and Japan went through as group winners despite some lukewarm performances.

The major losers were Asian champions Iraq, who waved goodbye to their World Cup dream when they lost 1-0 to Qatar in a match they needed only to draw.

South Korea coach Huh Jung-moo said his team would need to remedy their misfiring in front of goal if they wanted to reach their seventh successive finals.

“It’s something that we need to work on,” Huh told reporters. “There won’t be any easy matches in the next round and we have a very short time to prepare.”

The two groups will be contested on a home-and-away basis between September 2008 and June 2009.—Reuters