Asia’s World Cup Story – 10. 1998 – More representation, but more pain

May 15th, 2010 | by: Aidan |

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Having seen Saudi Arabia perform so well in 1994 reaching the last 16, and also now in the knowledge that the 2002 World Cup would be in Asia co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, hopes were high for progress again in 1998.

The expansion of the Finals to include 32 teams meant extra places for all confederations. For Asia this meant an increase to 3.5 places. The half a spot would be decided in a playoff between Asia’s 4th best and the Oceania winner.

Qualifying Round

Asia had an expansion of it’s own with 36 teams entering the qualification. They were split into 10 first round groups, the winners of which would compete in two final round groups. Some more sound thrashings were handed out in the first round, and on the wrong end of many of them were the Maldives who were making a thrilling first appearance in the qualifiers.

Their first ever World Cup match was a 17-0 hammering from Iran, followed by a mere 12-0 beating from Syria, but they would improve over the course of the group. Kyrgyzstan scored a paltry 3 against them, and Maldives finished up with 0 points, 0 goals scored and a magnificent 59 goals against is only 6 games. Almost 10 goals a game against is particularly impressive I’m sure you’ll agree.

With the Maldives out of the way, Iran took their place in final round group A along with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, China and Qatar, while final round group B was contested by United Arab Emirates, Japan, Uzbekistan, South Korea and Kazakhstan (prior to their defection to UEFA).

Group A was a close affair, but Saudi Arabia claimed top spot and the automatic qualifying place thanks to a final day 1-0 win in Qatar. Had they drawn that game instead of scraping a win, then Iran would have gone through as automatic qualifiers. As it was Iran had already done their best to throw qualification away by failing to win any of their last 3 matches, including losing to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. This left Iran facing the playoffs.

Over in group B things were rather clearer cut. South Korea comfortably won the group, six points clear of Japan, who themselves were comfortable in the playoff spot 4 points clear of UAE.

Iran and Japan played off a week later in the neutral venue of Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in what turned out to be quite a match, with Japan finally winning through 3-2 in golden goal extra time. Masayuki Okano scored the golden goal and claimed his place in Japanese football history to send Japan through to their first ever World Cup Finals.

But Iran weren’t out of it yet. Having missed out on Asia’s 3 places, there was still the small matter of the half place shared with Oceania. The OFC winner was unsurprisingly Australia, under Terry Venables at the time.

After a 1-1 draw in Tehran, Australia were understandably confident ahead of the second leg. And after 47 minutes at Melbourne’s MCG they were even more confident as Aurelio Vidmar put the Socceroos 2-0 up, 3-1 on aggregate, in front of a magnificent 85,000 crowd.

“Pack your bags, we’re going to France” was the call from the radio commentary team, and with a quarter of an hour remaining that was still looking like a perfectly valid exclamation.

But a lot can happen in 15 minutes of football. 14 minutes from time Karim Bagheri scored to pull one back for Iran. One more goal would send them through on away goals. Australia duly went into a full on panic, and then it happened…

The offside “trap” was breached a mere 3 minutes after Iran’s first goal and Khodadad Azizi became Iran’s hero, scoring past Mark Bosnich. Try as they might, Australia couldn’t find a way through in the remaining minutes and Iran were off to their second World Cup on the away goals rule. Dramatic stuff.

1998 Finals – The 0.5 did far better than the 3

France98 So Asia took four nations to a World Cup for the first time.

Saudi Arabia had the misfortune of being drawn in host nations France’s group and were unable to emulate their great achievement of 4 years earlier. In fact they came close to boring the world to death in their opening 1-0 loss to Denmark, before being thrashed 4-0 by the hosts. A match that was notable for Zinedine Zidane being red carded for a needless stamp on Fuad Amin. It didn’t stop France comfortably winning that match, but his 2 match suspension could have cost them dearly.

The Saudi’s snatched a draw from the jaws of victory in a 2-2 draw with South Africa, by giving away a 94th minute penalty, and the single point ensured their basement position in group C.

Asia’s other group winners from qualifying, South Korea, fared no better. A 3-1 opening defeat to Mexico had promised so much more as the Koreans led at half-time thanks to Ha Seok-Ju’s goal, but the second half was all Mexico. Things got considerably worse a week later when the Netherlands taught them a lesson in a 5-0 hammering.

A single consolation point came in their final match with Belgium, Yoo Sang-Chul grabbing a second half equaliser. But all in all South Korea had a tournament to forget in 1998, having done well 4 years earlier. For the Koreans and the Saudis, progress in 1994 had become toothless defeats in 1998. Their fortunes next time around would be polar opposites, but the 1998 similarities between the two were stark.

Japan’s World Cup debut was equally punishing. They fought well but came out with nothing after 3 defeats albeit all of them just by a single goal. Japan’s first match at this level was against the might of Argentina, but a single Gabriel Batistuta goal was all there was between them on the day.

The same outcome against Croatia, Davor Suker providing the goal, saw Japan eliminated early, beaten but far from disgraced. The final match was with the Reggae Boyz of Jamaica, certainly a winnable match. Unfortunately for Japan, Jamaica saw things the same way, and two goals from Theodore Whitmore put Jamaica out of reach, although Masashi Nakayama grabbed a slice of Japanese footballing history by scoring their first ever Finals goal to bring the score back to 2-1, but there wasn’t to be a grand comeback and Japan ended in tears and in 4th place.

Playoff qualifiers Iran fared the best of the 4, but also fell short. An opening 1-0 defeat to Yugoslavia was followed by what was billed as a clash of ideologies when they faced the USA in Lyon.

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Hamid Estili and Mehdi Mahdavikia became national heroes as Iran held on to deservedly win 2-1 sparking all night celebrations back in Tehran.

This left Iran the small task of needing to beat Germany to qualify. At half-time it was goalless, but the dream died in the second half, Oliver Bierhoff and Jurgen Klinsmann spoiling the fun.

But Iran gave more to the 1998 World Cup than any of the other Asian representatives, and in beating the USA made truly worldwide headlines.

However, things would have to be better in 2002. Asia were to host the tournament for the first time, shared between Japan and South Korea, and so those two in particular would need to step things up a level.

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