Taiwan were drawn to play Malaysia in the first round of Asian qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup in 2014. Yesterday’s draw at the Asian Football Confederation headquarters in Kuala Lumpur also paired the winners of the tie with Singapore in the second round.
Malaysia, winners of the Southeast Asian AFF Cup in December, will play Taiwan over two legs in one of eight first round ties which feature the regions lowest ranked teams.
However, Malaysia coach K. Rajagopal said his bigger focus was rebuilding for the next Asian Cup in Australia.
“Our main priority is one game at a time. I’m building a team for the future, a team that will qualify for the Asian Cup in Australia in 2015,” he said.
Palestine will host a World Cup qualifier for the first time after drawing Afghanistan.
The game is scheduled for Ramallah on July 3, four days after the first leg in Afghanistan.
Palestine were eliminated four years ago when they could not fulfill an away leg in Singapore because of Israeli travel restrictions.
Fifteen second-round matches were also drawn featuring the eight first round winners and the teams ranked between sixth and 27 in the region by FIFA.
Saudi Arabia, who contested four consecutive World Cups but were agonizingly beaten in a 2009 Asian play-off by Bahrain, admitted they had little knowledge of Hong Kong, whom they will face for a place in the group stage.
“We are not familiar with Hong Kong,” said Olympic team manager Wajdi al-Taweel, who was in Kuala Lumpur to observe the draw. “Of course, our target is to qualify for the World Cup.”
Iran should have no trouble against the Maldives as they bid to reach a fourth World Cup after appearances in 1978, 1998 and 2006.
Iraq will play Yemen in the second round while China, whose sole World Cup appearance was in 2002, will face either Cambodia or Laos. The United Arab Emirates play India and Jordan will take on either Nepal or East Timor.
Asia’s top five teams — Japan, South Korea, Australia, North Korea and Bahrain — have a bye for the first two rounds, and will join qualifying at the group stage.
Meanwhile Iran’s under-23 Olympic team was handed a blockbuster tie against arch-rivals Iraq in the second round of qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games in London.
Mohamed Nabi Mehdi, general secretary of the Iran Football Federation, was confident of overcoming the physical Iraqis after the Olympic draw, also carried out in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
“Iraq is a physically strong team but Iran has both technical and physical strength. I’m optimistic we can beat Iraq,” he said.
“It does not matter who we play with, as long as we qualify for the London Olympics,” Mehdi said.
Winners of 12 home-and-away ties played in June will advance to a group round starting in September.
The winners of each group will qualify for the 2012 Olympic tournament.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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