{"id":176,"date":"2025-06-03T03:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T18:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/s4q7jq2n.top\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/south-korea-on-cusp-uzbeks-eye-historic-world-cup-spot\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T03:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T18:29:13","slug":"south-korea-on-cusp-uzbeks-eye-historic-world-cup-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/south-korea-on-cusp-uzbeks-eye-historic-world-cup-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea on cusp, Uzbeks eye historic World Cup spot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japan and Iran have already sealed their berths at the tournament next year in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

South Korea are guaranteed to join them on Thursday if they avoid defeat against Iraq in Basra.<\/p>\n

Even if they lose, they will have another opportunity at home to Kuwait next Tuesday in Group B.<\/p>\n

South Korea and Spurs captain Son did not have his best club season but the 32-year-old attacker finished it off by lifting the Europa League trophy.<\/p>\n

Attacking midfielder Lee on Saturday collected a Champions League winner’s medal with Paris Saint-Germain after they thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich, although he remained on the bench for the final.<\/p>\n

South Korea coach Hong Myung-bo suggested he could use Son sparingly at the end of a long campaign in which the country’s talisman has struggled for form and fitness.<\/p>\n

“Since we have two matches coming up, I will not push him too hard,” said Hong, who believes Son will have a role to play even if he does not feature against an Iraq side now coached by former Australia boss Graham Arnold.<\/p>\n

“We will probably play in a hostile environment in front of partisan fans,” Hong said. “We have some players who have had experience playing in these situations.”<\/p>\n

China in deep trouble<\/p>\n

Japan were the first country to qualify for North America after running away with Group C.<\/p>\n

With the top two from the three Asian groups automatically qualifying, second-placed Australia are in pole position to go through with Japan with two match days left.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos host Japan in Perth on Thursday knowing that if they win and third-placed Saudi Arabia fail to do the same at Bahrain, they will qualify.<\/p>\n

Most likely however qualification will go down to the final round of matches on Tuesday when Australia travel to Saudi Arabia for a winner-takes-all blockbuster.<\/p>\n

“We’ve put ourselves in a good position within the group to be in control of our destiny,” said coach Tony Popovic, who took over the Socceroos in September following Arnold’s resignation.<\/p>\n

Indonesia are still mathematically in the running for an automatic place out of Group C, four points behind Australia and one behind the Saudis.<\/p>\n

Patrick Kluivert’s Indonesia host China in Jakarta on Thursday followed by a trip to Japan.<\/p>\n

China’s World Cup hopes are hanging by a thread at the bottom of the group.<\/p>\n

Even if teams do not finish in the top two of their pool, their World Cup hopes are not over.<\/p>\n

Third and fourth go into a further round of Asian qualifying.<\/p>\n

In Group A, where Iran have already qualified, Uzbekistan are on the cusp of their first World Cup.<\/p>\n

Avoid defeat to third-placed United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi and the Central Asian country will make history.<\/p>\n

For Asian champions Qatar, the best they can hope for is to come third or fourth and go into the next qualifying round.<\/p>\n

They host Iran before travelling to Uzbekistan and will be coached for the first time by former West Ham United, Real Madrid and Spain boss Julen Lopetegui.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong (AFP) \u2013 <\/span> European club trophy winners Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in will hope to fire South Korea to the World Cup in the coming days with four remaining automatic spots from Asia up for grabs. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Issued on: 03\/06\/2025 – 05:29<\/span>Modified: 03\/06\/2025 – 05:28<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/span> 2 min Reading time<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\"South<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-db"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}