Uzbekistan flirting with Cup history
After flirting with becoming an Asian soccer power for much of the past 25 years, Uzbekistan could finally clinch a place at the sport’s top table over the next two weeks.
Although its path is still by no means straightforward, victories in its remaining qualifiers against China and South Korea would secure the landlocked Central Asian nation of 30 million people a World Cup finals debut.
A place in December’s draw in Moscow would be particularly poignant for a country that only emerged from the Soviet Union in 1991 and where Russian is still widely spoken.
Uzbekistan is currently in third place in Group A of Asia’s third round of qualifying, a point behind South Korea and eight behind already-qualified Iran.
A win over China in Wuhan on Thursday evening would set up an epic, winner-takesall clash against South Korea in Tashkent on Sept 5.
“If we win two matches we will qualify for the World Cup in Russia,” coach Samvel Babayan said.
“We will try to play good football and achieve victory against China and Korea. That will be our aim.
“We still have a chance to qualify for the World Cup, the chance is still there.”
Failure to secure one of the two automatic berths from Group A would almost certainly mean third place and a potential ticket to Russia via two playoffs — a hazardous journey that will awake some
Scoreboard
painful memories for Uzbeki fans.
In 2006 World Cup qualifying, Uzbekistan faced Bahrain in the continental playoff and was leading 1-0 in Tashkent when it was awarded a penalty, which Server Djeparov converted.
However, the referee disallowed the goal after ruling another Uzbek player had encroached into the penalty area. He should have ordered the penalty to be retaken, but mistakenly awarded Bahrain a freekick instead.
After the game finished 1-0, Uzbekistan appealed to FIFA asking to be awarded a 3-0 victory.
Instead, world soccer’s governing body ordered the match to be replayed and after holding the Uzbeks to a 1-1 draw in their second encounter, Bahrain advanced following a scoreless draw in Manama.
Uzbekistan again got through to the continental playoff in 2013, but it was Jordan that marched on to play Uruguay for a spot in Brazil after prevailing 9-8 in a penalty shootout when both legs finished 1-1.
The country’s record of close misses has been a source of frustration for Uzbeki soccer fans, who might have expected better after it won the gold medal at the 1994 Asian Games soon after it joined the international fray.
That has left its fans restricted to celebrating near-misses, individual successes and solid performances in age-group competitions.
Uzbekistan reached the semifinals of the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar, the best showing by any of the former Soviet republics — Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are also members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) — at continental level.
Djeparov, who at 34 remains the creative fulcrum of the national team, has twice being named AFC Player of the Year, while Ravshan Irmatov has long been considered Asia’s leading referee.
Uzbekistan’s youth teams, meanwhile, have appeared at three of the past five FIFA Under-20 World Cups, reaching the quarterfinals in 2013 and 2015.
Over the next two weeks, the senior national team could finally put Uzbekistan firmly on the world map in the country’s favorite sport.
That the United States, which has qualified for the past seven World Cup finals, could yet stand in the path to Russia of whichever Asian team gets through the continental playoff makes automatic qualification all the more attractive.
Babayan needed no reminding of that and is taking a highly pragmatic approach to achieving it.
“You have to win in World Cup qualifying games and claiming three points is the most important thing,” he said. “Shots, tactical style and other things sometimes are secondary. You just need to win.
“When you play for your country you don’t need additional motivation. There are lots of good players in our squad and we have to use them in the games.
“I have trust in all my players.”