Number one seed for World Cup

Despite an indifferent Asian Cup campaign, we’ve been seeded number one in Asian qualifying for South Africa 2010. This means we get a bye for the first two rounds of qualifying. Our first match day is then on February 6th. My only concern is that on some match days we’ll have to make do with only A-League players. EPL sides are unlikely to release players on certain dates. At our first stage of qualifying, we will be placed in one of 5 groups. The top two of each of these groups goes to the fourth round. The ten teams are placed in two groups of five. The top two from each of these groups qualify automatically for South Africa. The third place getters from both the groups playoff for the right to hammer New Zealand (or Solomon Islands, who knows) and take the inevitable fifth place for Asia. I almost want to finish fifth so that we can show that joke of a confederation they call Oceania, just why we left them.