Last chance for Bahrain and Uzbekistan

Goal.com September 2 On the global stage, the meeting of Bahrain and Uzbekistan may not be one that causes many ripples but there will be more than a few hearts racing in Tashkent on Saturday evening as the two nations meet in the Asian zonal World Cup playoffs. For both countries victory in the two-legged clash, in the Uzbek capital on September third and in the middle-east four days later, would put them one step closer to a first World Cup. The final hurdle will come in the shape of CONCAFAF s fourth-placed member in November, but neither coach will be thinking quite that far ahead just yet. Both teams owe the lifeline to the half-place allocation that Asia gets in addition to the four places that have been snatched by the continent s traditional big four -Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran and Japan, who demonstrated the gap that exists between them and the rest by achieving qualification easily. More than a few believed that Uzbekistan had a real chance of upsetting South Korea and Saudi Arabia in Group A and taking one of the two automatic places. The Central Asians performed well at last summer s Asian Cup defeating the Saudis on their unbeaten route to the quarter-finals. It was Bahrain and a penalty shoot-out that ended that run and if revenge is a to be a dish served cold then Uzbekistan will have to show more heat on the pitch than they have done so far in 2005. Even with Dinamo Kiev s striker Maksim Shatskikh and Torpedo Moscow s highly-rated prospect Alexander Geynrikh, who is currently injured, there wasn t much to excite fans in the former Soviet Republic. The second stage of qualifying was a dismal one and the team is lucky to still have Germany in its sights-albeit tentatively. Three defeats, two draws and two coaches left new boss Bobby Houghton needing to beat Kuwait in the final game. Qualification prospects looked murky on a warm Tashkent evening as the middle-easterners took a two goal lead but after an exciting fightback, Uzbekistan snatched the necessary three points and third place. Bahrain already had third place in the bag in Group B, thanks to North Korea s inability to pick up points but finishing nine points behind second-placed Iran is nothing to get too excited about. After defeating the Uzbeks in China last summer, Bahrain starred in a semi-final thriller with Japan, only to lose by the odd goal in seven to the eventual champions. Hopes were also high in Mamana and beyond, that one of Japan or Iran could be vanquished, hopes that looked plausible after the first two games which saw a draw with Iran and a win in Pyongyang. That was it for the Gulf State and no more points were put up on the board over the remaining four games, a run that led to the departure of coach Wolfgang Sidka and his the appointment of Luka Peruzovic. Unlike his central Asian counterpart, the Belgian s track record reads one game and one defeat but the real test is yet to come. Four goals in the six games tells its own story, one that the team hasn t managed to replace the injured A laa Hubail. The joint top scorer of last year s Asian Cup missed all qualification matches this year and isn t ready to return yet, leaving Bahrain fans to look elsewhere for inspiration, especially to Talal Yusuf and Husain Ali. Uzbekistan haven t lost at home during the qualifiers and will be confident of getting a result in front of over 50,000 in their capital on Saturday. With that in mind, Bahrain will be happy with a point in Tashkent and a chance to settle the tie in Manama on September 7.