World Cup 2010 Qualifiers

First of all, congratulations to all who had followed my tips for yesterday’s ACN quarter-finals.

The first matches in the Asian World Cup of Qualifiers begin tomorrow and we will look at a few selected games.

Australia vs Qatar

Australia will have almost a full squad to choose from and will want to make amends for the disastrous asian debut at the Asian Cup in South-East Asia. Kewell has been dropped by Coach Pim Veerbek as he has just recovered from long-term injury but Tim Cahill is expected to play. Mark Viduka is still absent as he has not made up his mind whether to continue playing internationals.

Winning all their home matches will be the mantra for Australia and they are well poised to do that against a Qatar team which is not known for playing well in away matches. In their last competitive away match 4 months backs, Qatar struggled to beat Sri Lanka 1-0 at Colombo. Though they do not have any star players, they have 3 naturalised citizens (Soria – Uruguay and 2 Brazilians) in the team.

Qatar will be playing for a draw and will be happy to soak-and-strike. Australia are very strong at home and should see off Qatar comfortably … 2-0 to the Ozzies !! 

Other matches

• Japan vs Thailand – Home, -1.5, 2-0
• Korea Republic vs Turkmenistan – Draw , +1.5, 0-0
• Iraq vs China – Home, +1.5, 1-0