BEIJING BOUND – THE PATH TO THE 2008 OLYMPICS
The road to Beijing and an Australian appearance in the 2008 men’s and women’s Olympic football tournament is set to be both lengthy and rocky following the draw made by the Asian Football Confederation earlier this month.
The Qantas Under 23s and the Qantas Matildas will have to knock over Asia-s finest in an extensive campaign throughout next year that will see the frequent flyer tallies go though the roof.
The men-s team will have to negotiate 14 matches in a three-staged qualification campaign over a nine-month period from February.
Australia-s proud record of qualifying for every Olympics since 1988 will be sorely tested by the length and breadth of the qualification process. Coach Graham Arnold was also done no favours when the lottery of the draw pitted Australia against Arabic heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran in the second stage with two nations from the group to progress to the final round of qualifying. The phrase ‘group of death- would not be inappropriate given this is one of six groups and not even the final stage of qualifying.
Firstly though Australia will have to navigate through a home and away opening tie against Chinese Taipei in February.
The final stage will see three groups of four with just the first team in each group to represent.
The qualification route contrasts markedly with that previously experienced through Oceania. The 2004 Oceania representative decided via an abbreviated five-team tournament in Sydney before the Qantas Under 23s qualified with a home and away play-off win against New Zealand.
The benefit of course is testing matches in a variety of conditions against a wide array of footballing styles. Any team that can progress to the Olympics via such an arduous route will undoubtedly be battle-hardened and ready to meet the world-s best.
Another benefit will be to Australian football fans across the country who will have the chance to see men-s and women-s Olympic qualification action with a significant number of matches to be played on home soil.
The Qantas Matildas, who were close to progressing the medal round at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, will play fewer matches but need to overcome similarly well-credentialed opponents if they are to attempt to go one step better in Beijing.
Fresh from a second-place finish at the AFC Women-s Asian Cup in Adelaide two months ago, and with it a berth at the 2007 FIFA Women-s World Cup, the Cheryl Salisbury led Qantas Matildas will undoubtedly tackle their Asian opposition with confidence.
Based on those impressive results in Adelaide, the team will have high expectations about the required top-two finish in the first round against group opponents Chinese Taipei, Myanmar and Uzbekistan.
Aside from hosts China, only two teams from Asia will appear in the 12-nation tournament and Australia will have to overcome the highest ranked Asian team in world football in the second and final stage of qualifying. DPR (North) Korea are ranked seventh in the world, have twice been crowned Asian champions in recent years, and just a month ago their U-20 team were crowned world champions.
Australia and DPR Korea battled out a highly competitive scoreless draw in Adelaide but a trip to Pyongyang for an away leg is one of the more difficult tasks in women-s football.