2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

Tournament details
Teams	39 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	136
Goals scored	407 (2.99 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ali Daei (9 goals)
← 2002 2010 →

AFC Asian Qualifiers
show FIFA World Cup 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
show AFC Asian Cup 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
v t

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.

Format[]

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 were even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams were ranked by:^[1]

1. Greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned
3. Greatest number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned
4. Goal difference in all group matches
5. Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches
6. A play-off on neutral ground. If, after 90 minutes, this match ended in a draw, two 15-minute periods of extra time would be played. If the score was still level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out would determine the winner.

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

Group 2[]

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

Group 3[]

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

Group 4[]

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

Group 5[]

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

Group 6[]

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

Group 7[]

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

Group 8[]

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

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

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

Group 2[]

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

• 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.^[3]

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[]

• 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC) at RSSSF.com