AFC Fourth Round Schedule

The AFC Fourth Round will take place over a 13-month period and will feature ten matchdays. Each team will receive two matchdays off corresponding to their seeding. Top-seeded South Korea and Australia are off on Matchdays One and Six. Japan were dropped down to the fifth seed for scheduling purposes, so the teams seeded behind them in Group Two were bumped up in the off-day order. Iran and Iraq are off on Matchdays Two and Seven. Uzbekistan and Jordan take off Matchdays Three and Eight and thereby are the only teams to avoid facing the dreaded triple-matchday scenario of three games in a two-week period. Qatar and Lebanon are off on Matchdays Four and Nine. Oman and Japan have byes on Matchdays Five and Ten, although Japan will be playing in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup on concurrently with Matchday Ten.

The first three matchdays will take place over a ten-day period in June 2012. The middle four matchdays are more isolated affairs, with one matchday each falling in September, October, and November 2012, as well as March 2013. The final three matchdays will occur in a fifteen-day span in June 2013.

3 June 2012

Iran at Uzbekistan

Qatar at Lebanon

Iraq at Jordan

Oman at Japan

8 June 2012

South Korea at Qatar

Uzbekistan at Lebanon

Australia at Oman

Jordan at Japan

12 June 2012

Lebanon at South Korea

Qatar at Iran

Japan at Australia

Oman at Iraq

11 September 2012

South Korea at Uzbekistan

Iran at Lebanon

Australia at Jordan

Iraq at Japan

16 October 2012

South Korea at Iran

Uzbekistan at Qatar

Australia at Iraq

Jordan at Oman

14 November 2012

Uzbekistan at Iran

Lebanon at Qatar

Jordan at Iraq

Japan at Oman

26 March 2013

Qatar at South Korea

Lebanon at Uzbekistan

Oman at Australia

Japan at Jordan

4 June 2013

Iran at Qatar

South Korea at Lebanon

Iraq at Oman

Australia at Japan

11 June 2013

Uzbekistan at South Korea

Lebanon at Iran

Jordan at Australia

Japan at Iraq

18 June 2013

Iran at South Korea

Qatar at Uzbekistan

Iraq at Australia

Oman at Jordan

AFC Round Four Draw

The draw has brought Asia plenty of rematches from the AFC Third Round groups. From Group A and into Group Two come Iraq and Jordan, who split their two meetings in the previous phase. From Group B and into Group One come South Korea and Lebanon, who also split their two meetings. From Group D and into Group Two come Australia and Oman, who split their two meetings from round three as well. From Group E and into Group One come Iran and Qatar, who exchanged draws in the previous group stage. The only pair split apart was Group C's Japan and Uzbekistan, which may suit Japan just fine after Uzbekistan won the group with a win and a draw against the 2011 AFC Asian Cup winners.

The teams' current ELO ratings are listed.

Group One

21 South Korea

32 Iran

54 Uzbekistan

83 Qatar

129 Lebanon

Group Two

16 Australia

25 Japan

60 Iraq

73 Jordan

76 Oman

The AFC Fourth Round runs from 3 June 2012 to 18 June 2012. Each team will play eight matches, one at home and one away to each of the other four teams in their group. The group winners and runners-up will go to the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brasil. The two third-place teams advance to the AFC Fifth Round in September 2013. The fourth-place and fifth-place finishers in each group will be eliminated from the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Group Two appears to be the tougher of the two groups. The higher-ranked team out of every pot except Pot C (Uzbekistan) was drawn into this group. Group Two contains the two finalists from the 2011 AFC Asian Cup (Japan and Australia), whereas Group One contains the two losing semifinalists from that competition (South Korea and Uzbekistan). Both groups contain two losing quarterfinalists from the most recent AFC Asian Cup, with Iran and Qatar landing in Group One and Iraq and Jordan taking their place in Group Two.

After a quick scan of the draw, my predictions for the teams going to Brasil 2014 are South Korea and Uzbekistan from Group One and Australia and Japan from Group Two. The two teams predicted to advance to the AFC Fifth Round are Iran and Iraq.

Although Qatar may handle Iran decently well, I believe Iran's edge comes from their better ability to get results against group powers South Korea and Uzbekistan, especially with raucous crowds filing in the Azadi Stadium in Tehran. Lebanon managed to squeak out second place in the easiest of the Third Round groups (Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon were all the lowest seeds in their respective pots for the round three draw), but this step up in competition should prove too great. Iraq seems to have cracked the Jordan puzzle as of late, and an Oman team bereft of goalscoring (three scored in six games in the previous phase) will meet their match in this final group phase.

Group Previews:

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1597393/index.html

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1597391/index.html (Group One)

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1597392/index.html (Group Two)

AFC Fourth Round Pot Allocations

The final ten teams in Asia will begin the AFC Fourth Round in June 2012. The teams will be split into two groups of five teams. The top two teams in each of these groups will advance to the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brasil. The two third-place teams will advance to a two-legged playoff for the right to take on the fifth-place team in CONMEBOL in a two-legged intercontinental playoff for a potential fifth Asian berth at Brasil 2014.

The teams have been split into five pots based upon the March 2012 FIFA rankings. One team from each pot will be drawn in Group One, and one team from each pot will be drawn into Group Two.

Pot A

1. Australia

2. South Korea

Pot B

3. Japan

4. Iran

Pot C

5. Uzbekistan

6. Iraq

Pot D

7. Jordan

8. Qatar

Pot E

9. Oman

10. Lebanon

This final group phase will consist of ten matchdays. Each team will play eight matches and have two matchdays off. The final matchday conflicts with the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brasil, so Japan will be assigned to the position in their group that guarantees that they will have the final matchday off. Japan will be at Brasil 2013 by virtue of their victory at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.