Roughly four years ago I started a 2018 World Cup Qualification thread ahead of the big one in Russia last year... With the next edition still over three years away and in the highly controversial location of Qatar its time for Qualification to begin all over again, of course not all Confederations have began but it wont be long...
ASIA
Norjmoogiin Tsedenbai certainly isnt your household name... A defender for Ulaanbaatar City since 2017 (no doubt replacement for Patrick Bauer) and will forever be in the history books... A ninth minute free kick against Brunei would see Norjmooglin scoring the first goal in the 2022 World Cup and so give Mongolia a 3-2 aggregate win over their South East Asian opponents - There were wins too for Bangladesh, Malaysia, Cambodia and Guam whilst the likes of Laos, Timor-Leste, Pakistan and Brunei will now need to wait four more years for another shot at the World Cup Finals
There appears to be remarkable controversy between Macau and Sri Lanka though, with the former 1-0 up from the first leg, their Football Association has decided to withdraw their team from the second leg over security concerns; it led to a remarkable protest within the Macau FA Cup which saw Ka I beating Hang Sai 21-18 in protest at the decision.
The draw for the second round will be completed in July; where there will be eight Groups of five Nations...
We'll see the big nations entering (Iran as the highest ranked Nation and Guam as the lowest), advancement to the next round will be guaranteed for each team finishing top of their group, only the four best second placed teams will join them in the next round!!
AFRICA | OCEANIA
Qualifying will begin for each confederation later this year with CAF commencing in October... Formats have yet to be decided for each whilst both Libya and Sierra Leone will particpate following threats of exclusion were lifted against each.
AMERICAS | EUROPE
Qualifying will begin in 2020; for European Nations its likely that the 2020-21 Nations League will be partially linked with the Qualifiers in a similar fashion to the Nations League that we've seen over the last twelve months - The World Cup Qualifying format will be confirmed on the 24th September during a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Comments
Unfortunately no South Korean fans or journalists will be allowed to go to the game though
AFC
Qualification is well under way as a whole in Asia now though… Second Round as mentioned is now a Group stage with the heavy hitters entering at this phase – After the initial games (most teams will have played three games by the end of this International break) there are no real surprises
China | Australia | Iran | Saudi Arabia | Qatar | Japan | United Arab Emirates | South Korea all lead their Groups whilst the top four second placed teams involve: Syria | Oman | North Korea | Tajikistan
With another seven games still to be played though there is plenty of time for change – Singapore (160th in the World) are the biggest surprise package at present, sitting second in their Group (albeit in a position that wouldn’t see them advance), they find themselves a point ahead of Uzbekistan who you’d expect to advance to the next round.
There is without doubt proof that there are a good number of minnows still struggling within Asia – Cambodia the biggest example of this losing 14-0 to Iran on Thursday!! (Reza Ghoochannejhad was not amongst the scorers, the ex-Addick announced his retirement from International Football as a result of being left on the bench for all of their 2018 World Cup games!!)
CAF
First Round is done and dusted in Africa with the second round draw yet to be named
The initial stage though was as simple as it gets when it comes to reporting – A two legged fixture for each side with the winners from each advancing – Despite having Saido Berahino in their team, it made no difference for Burundi; the Swallows will have to wait another four years for a shot at World Cup glory, a penalty shoot-out defeat against Tanzania the outcome of their game
With Somalia (the second lowest team) would squander a 1-0 lead from their first leg (losing 3-1 in the return game against Zimbabwe) it would be Djibouti who would advance as the lowest African team left in the competition, they would defeat Eswatini (previously named: Swaziland) 2-1 on aggregate and so advance to the second round for just the second time in their history.
For Eswatini its proof you can change your name but doesn’t mean that results will get any better!!
Qualification in North America (which has been completely revamped for this campaign) | Europe | Oceania | South America is still to be determined with draws yet to be made for any of those mentioned
Qatar are involved in this Round as it doubles up as Qualification for the Asian Cup - Should they "Qualify" for the third round of the World Cup then their place will go to the fifth best placed team to finish second which will be Kuwait at present
On another note shows how well Montserrat have come along since 2002