Asia. Group 13 – two teams going to Italy. The qualifications went through two rounds – at first the participating countries were divided into 6 groups, which winners went to final round and the top two teams in the final group qualified to the World Cup finals. In 5 of the first round groups games were played in the familiar way: every team hosted one leg against its opponents and played the second leg away. Subgroup D (South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Nepal), though, had all games played in Seoul and Singapore. Originally, five teams were in this group, but India withdrew. It was not the only country to withdrew from the qualifications – Bahrain (Subgroup B) and South Yemen (Subgroup C) did the same, leaving the actual groups uneven: two groups had 3 participants and the rest – 4 teams. In a way, there were two big surprises in the first round:
Japan finished 2nd in Subgroup F, behind North Korea, and
Iran lost the battle for top position in Subgroup E to China dramatically – on goal-difference.
Japan’s elimination was seemingly more surprising – Iran lost ground because of Islamic revolution and regime which came to rule the country in the late 1970s, which affected negatively football, but Japan was developing steadily during the 1980s and was rapidly becoming one of the leading football countries in Asia. But solid professionalism was only in its very first steps and perhaps that was why Japan failed.
The final round between the 6 group winners took place in Singapore – a round-robin tournament between teams representing the leading football strongholds in Asia: the Arabic West and the Pacific coast in the far East. Since economic wealth goes hand in hand with football, the winners pretty much represent that as well: economic rapid development and oil money.
1.SOUTH KOREA 5 3 2 0 5- 1 8
No surprise there: South Korea was perhaps the best developed Asian country at that moment – careful building of the game, step by step towards full professionalism brought results and South Korea reached World Cup finals again – 1986 finals were just a stepping stone, continued now on higher level.
2.UAE 5 1 4 0 4- 3 6
United Arab Emirates came rather surprising second, but in the same time their great success was not entirely out of the blue: UAE were part of Arabic West rich on oil money and investing in football. Unlike South Korea, team UAE had to fight against equal foe.
Their key match was against China – here Khalil Mubarak just equalized and thus turned the game in UAE’s favour. It was the only match the team won, but it was against their biggest rival – 2-1.
The great Mario Zagallo coached UAE to their success – an instant hero, of course, but the Brazilian of Lebanese descent was not to coach UAE in Italy (replaced by another Brazilian, who would become famous coach as well). Thus, UAE reached World Cup finals for the first time – what a thrill.
3.Qatar 5 1 3 1 4- 5 5
Not bad, even close to qualification, but… unsteady. They lost badly to North Korea – 0-2 – and that was more or less the end of their hopes.
4.China 5 2 0 3 5- 6 4
China – pictured here in a game against Iran in the first round – entertained high hopes for going to Italy, but the game against UAE killed them.
5.Saudi Arabia 5 1 2 2 4- 5 4
Cannot judge them harshly – Asian football was pretty much equal and depending on chance, momentary form, sudden drops of form. The Saudis were neither better, nor worse than the others, but it was not their time to reach World Cup finals.
6.North Korea 5 1 1 3 2- 4 3
Perhaps the weakest team in the final group, driven more by political motivation than anything else. Did what they could, but perhaps their really big aim was prevailing over South Korea – and they lost the battle 0-1. After that they lost all remaining games.