Roos snubbed for Asian Cup

[the_gun]

Australia's worst fears were realised on Thursday night when the Socceroos were not seeded for the 2011 Asian Cup finals in Qatar in January.

The Asian Football Confederation has released the top seedings and mechanism for the draw to take place in Doha on Saturday (AEST).

The Australians are Asia's highest-ranked team according to the FIFA world rankings but the AFC has based its seeding process for Qatar 2011 entirely on results obtained at the last Asian Cup in 2007.

The Socceroos, who lost to Japan in a quarter-final penalty shootout in Hanoi, were ranked sixth in Asia and have been placed in the second pot with Japan, Iran and Uzbekistan.

The top four seeds are host Qatar and the first three place-getters in 2007: winner Iraq, beaten finalist Saudi Arabia and third-placed South Korea.

The draw that will take place at the Aspire Dome will feature 16 teams, including India and North Korea who will make history as the first teams to take part in Asia's flagship tournament as respective winners of the 2008 and 2010 AFC Challenge Cups.

The 16 teams will be divided into four round-robin groups with the top two in each group progressing to the quarter-finals.

The 2011 Asian Cup seedings:

Pot 1 (teams ranked 1-4): Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Korea.

Pot 2 (teams ranked 5-8): Japan, Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan.

Pot 3 (teams ranked 9-11): China, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan.

Pot 4 (teams ranked 12-16): Syria, Kuwait, India, North Korea.

[seanason]

That is one of the most ridiculous systems i have ever heard of.

[Loppermann]

That is one of the most ridiculous systems i have ever heard of.

what do you expect, it's the AFC

[Porcupine]

That is one of the most ridiculous systems i have ever heard of.

Why?

[Loppermann]

That is one of the most ridiculous systems i have ever heard of.

Why?

it's based entirely on the results of the last Asian Cup
fair enough if it was kicking off a week after the 07 tournament, but a lot has happened in the past 4 years...

[Ocean Rain]

it's based entirely on the results of the last Asian Cup

So

[rooboy1986]

I think its fair enough, we will not be playing our superstars it will essentially be Australia "A" so i wouldn't rate our second team in the top 4 of Asia.

In either case i think Aussies perform better as underdogs so i'd prefer we were under-estimated.

[Loppermann]

it's based entirely on the results of the last Asian Cup

So

so?

[seanason]

I think its fair enough, we will not be playing our superstars it will essentially be Australia "A" so i wouldn't rate our second team in the top 4 of Asia.

In either case i think Aussies perform better as underdogs so i'd prefer we were under-estimated.

EPL teams released african players for the cup of nations earlier this year, you'd hope that theyd be doing the same for the afc nations.

[Red-4-Life]

pathetic...

No.1 team in Asia and we are unseeded...WTF :?

[Loppermann]

pathetic...

No.1 team in Asia and we are unseeded...WTF :?

only according to the FIFA rankings
South Korea gave us a football lesson last time we played them and we're pretty much level with Japan

[DOC]

I think its fair enough, we will not be playing our superstars it will essentially be Australia "A" so i wouldn't rate our second team in the top 4 of Asia.

In either case i think Aussies perform better as underdogs so i'd prefer we were under-estimated.

fifa sanctioned tournaments, such as regional cups, ie this, africa cup of nations, gold cup, south america, clubs have to release players if they are chosen...