Asian Qualifying and the World Cup

The last few days have seen some interesting stories unfold as four teams punched their tickets to the World Cup next summer. Among these stories, we saw Australia complete their qualifying campaign by beating Japan (who also qualified) 2-1. That goal was the first the Socceroos conceded in all 8 qualifying games from this round of qualifying, a remarkable statistic. We learned that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain would feature in a two-legged playoff for the right to play New Zealand, with the winner earning a spot in the next World Cup. There were two stories, however, which are much more significant both to the soccer world and political world.

First, I turn my attention to Iran and the political situation there at the moment. I'm sure many people heard about the green wristbands that several Iranian players wore to show their apparent support of opposition candidate Mir Hossain Mousavi in a qualifying match against South Korea on Wednesday. Team captain Mehdi Mahdavikia (remember him as the man who scored the goal that knocked the United States out of the 1998 World Cup?) wore a green band, and Ali Karimi wore green bands on both of his wrists, among others. The players only wore them in the first half, seemingly ordered to take them off at halftime.

This was a risky thing for all these players to do. To me, its seems the Iranian protests in Tehran most notably have succeeded because there are so many people participating. There are no individuals, just a collective group protesting together. These soccer players are singling themselves out on a world stage (albeit, together, but they're still easy to identify) for all to see. It's a bold move, and for that I commend them. More importantly, for the players at least, Iran drew 1-1 with South Korea, which knocked them out of the World Cup and sent South Korea through instead.

Second, the North Korean national soccer team qualified for the 2010 World Cup this past week with a 0-0 draw over Saudi Arabia. This is their first World Cup appearance since the 1966 World Cup in England where they finished 8th. Even more notably, Kim Jong-Il will have a reason to travel to South Africa is he so chooses or is allowed to. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the national team of this socialist country next summer.