Saudi Arabia's path to 2026 World Cup starts in qualifying group with Jordan and Tajikistan
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s path to the 2026 World Cup in North America will start in a first qualifying group with neighboring Jordan, Tajikistan, and either Cambodia or Pakistan.
Players in the Saudi national team — which upset eventual champion Argentina 2-1 to open last year's tournament in Qatar — will prepare for the next edition training and playing with a slew of global stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema lured to the multi-billion dollar project that the Saudi league has become.
Saudi Arabia's extra interest in World Cup qualifying is that the top two teams in each of the nine four-team groups also goes direct to the 2027 Asian Cup, a tournament that will be hosted in the oil-rich kingdom.
None of Asia’s eight direct qualifying places to the expanded 48-team World Cup — co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico — are on offer from this group stage.
The 18 teams advancing from the first group stage foom November to June 2024 will enter another round of six-team groups next year.
In other groups from Thursday's draw, Japan will face Syria, North Korea plus either Myanmar or Macau, who have a two-leg playoff in October.
The current security situation in Syria, and also Afghanistan and Yemen, means those teams are likely to play “home” games in neutral countries.
Australia’s home-based players will have at least one round trip of about 25,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) in a group with Palestine, Lebanon and either Maldives or Bangladesh.
South Korea, whose run of 10 straight qualifications started at the 1986 World Cup, is in a group with China, Thailand and either Singapore or Guam. South Korea is now led by Jurgen Klinsmann, who is aiming for a third World Cup as coach after his native Germany in 2006 and the United States at the 2014 tournament.
Qatar, the 2022 host which has never advanced through the qualifying stages, is grouped with India, Kuwait plus Afghanistan or Mongolia.
Qatar has recruited Carlos Queiroz to extend his streak of coaching at four straight World Cups — in 2010 with Portugal and the past three with Iran.
India never played at a World Cup and coach Igor Štimac said Thursday the draw was not lucky to his team. Qatar will defend its Asian Cup title in January, and Štimac called Kuwait “by far the best team from (seeding) pot 3” in the draw.
Asia has perhaps the most complex path of soccer’s six continents to reach the 48-team World Cup.
Six teams will qualify via the subsequent group stage from September 2024 to June 2025. Two more places will be decided by another group stage in October 2025 involving six teams.
A two-team playoff in November 2025 will send the winner to the intercontinental playoffs.
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