World Cup Pot 4 - Australia, Japan, Morocco, Nigeria, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea

Record ID: 938885

  • Title: World Cup Pot 4 - Australia, Japan, Morocco, Nigeria, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea
  • Date: 23rd November 2017
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 12, 2017) (REUTERS) SOUTH KOREA MIDFIELDER SON HEUNG-MIN TRAINING WITH TOTTENHAM TEAM
  • Embargoed: 7th December 2017 00:02
  • Keywords: Australia Japan Morocco Nigeria South Korea Panama World Cup Pot 4 Serbia Saudi Arabia
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Soccer,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA00I78KQCZJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: AUSTRALIA: Australia have yet to appoint the coach who will take them to Russia following Ange Postecoglou's resignation a week after qualification was assured.
    Postecoglou, who took over before the 2014 World Cup, only hinted at the reasons for his departure but it might be that Australia's laboured qualification played a part.
    Missing out on a direct ticket to their fourth straight World Cup finals prompted a barrage of criticism of the coach and the playoff victories over Syria and Honduras did little to ease fears that Australia are just not that good.
    Finding an effective strikeforce will be the new coach's biggest problem. Tim Cahill will be 38 by the time his fourth World Cup comes around but Australia needed his 49th and 50th international goals to get past Syria, while skipper Mile Jedinak notched a two-penalty hat-trick to win the Honduras tie.
    There is plenty of creative talent in the Socceroos squad with players like Aaron Mooy, Tom Rogic, Robbie Kruse and the fast improving Mathew Leckie.
    Australian teams will always offer physicality and a positive mental attitude but without goals, they might struggle in Russia.
    JAPAN: Expectations will be high in Japan when they compete in their sixth successive World Cup after finishing top of a tough Asian qualifying group ahead of fellow qualifiers Saudi Arabia and Australia.
    But Bosnian head coach Vahid Halilhodzic will be under pressure from a nation that expects Japan to progress from the group stage.
    With a squad lacking the stars of many other countries, Halilhodzic will hope to draw on a group of dependable starters with plenty of top-flight European experience.
    The two Shinjis -- Kagawa, of Borussia Dortmund, and Okasaki, of Leicester City -- are two of the highest-profile names, but both were left out of the recent friendly defeats to Brazil and Belgium, as well as the critical 2-0 victory over Australia in August that secured Japan's place in the draw for Russia 2018.
    One player who did feature in that match was 21-year-old midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi, who scored the second against Australia and picked up Rookie of the Year honours in the J-League last season.
    Japan conceded only seven goals in their 10 qualification games, with a wealth of European experience in Hiroki Sakai, of Marseille, Gotoku Sakai, of Hamburg, and Southampton's Maya Yoshida, alongside international cap centurion Yuto Nagamoto, of Inter Milan.
    MOROCCO: Morocco are making their first appearance at the finals in 20 years and can thank a bit of diplomacy by coach Herve Renard which brought maverick midfield talent Hakim Ziyech back into the side.
    Ziyech had quit the team after Renard left him out of the squad for the African Nations Cup at the start of the year.
    But a meeting between the two led to Ziyech's return and he scored twice in a decisive 6-0 home win over Mali in September that proved the turning point of the campaign.
    Ziyech is one of the talented midfielders who make the Moroccan side tick along with Mbark Boussoufa, also born in the Netherlands, and French-born Younes Belhanda.
    Southampton's Sofiane Boufal, Morocco's key attacker, spent a year deciding between France and Morocco before Renard, who coached him at Lille, persuaded him to join the Africans.
    The French coach has signed a new deal as reward for ensuring qualification as Morocco came from behind to usurp Ivory Coast, with whom Renard won the 2015 Nations Cup.
    Morocco took advantage of a stumbling campaign by the Ivorians and, needing a point in their last game in Abidjan, won 2-0 away to Ivory Coast, who would have qualified themselves with a victory, to top Africa's Group C by four points.
    NIGERIA: Nigeria are the only one of Africa's five representatives from the last World Cup who return for the 2018 edition and will be looking to better their place in the last 16 in Brazil.
    A crop of exciting youngsters headline a team who will play at the World Cup for the fifth time, having mostly underachieved in the past.
    Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Henry Onyekuru and Moses Simon represent a new generation that has emerged since the 2014 finals as Nigeria surprisingly qualified easily from a tough group that included Algeria, who also reached the second round of the last World Cup, and African champions Cameroon.
    Nigeria were the first African country to book a berth in Russia and finished unbeaten in Africa's Group B, winning all their home games with two draws and a victory away under German coach Gernot Rohr.
    He was a surprise appointment just weeks before the start of the group phase of the preliminaries after previously coaching Burkina Faso, Gabon and Niger.
    Rohr will have high hopes that Nigeria can make an impact at the finals, particularly after they beat Argentina 4-2 in a friendly in Russia earlier this month.
    There will be concern about Nigeria's dependency on Victor Moses and John Obi Mikel, with the level of performances over the last year falling dramatically when they were absent.
    Obi Mikel now plays his club football in China while his old Chelsea team mate Moses is the biggest name in Nigeria's team.
    PANAMA: Hernan Dario Gomez has led Panama to their first finals after achieving the same feat with Ecuador in 2002.
    Known as El Bolillo (The Truncheon), in 2014 the Colombian took over a nation which, since 2005, has twice reached the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the semi-finals on another two occasions - and the same generation of players has taken them to Russia.
    The squad oozes experience, with goalkeeper Jaime Penedo (36), defender Roman Torres (31), midfielders Gabriel Gomez (33) and Armando Cooper (nearly 30), forwards Blas Perez (36) and Luis Tejada (35) all having won around 100 caps or more.
    Panama produced a dramatic fightback to beat Costa Rica 2-1 in their final game, thanks in part to a controversial equaliser from Gabriel Torres, which replays clearly showed did not cross the line. Fortunately for them, goalline technology was not in use.
    Panama were still facing elimination until an 87th-minute goal by Roman Torres gave them a 2-1 win, allowing them to leapfrog both Honduras and United States and qualify directly for Russia.
    SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia make their return to the finals for the first time since 2006 aiming to recapture the country's glory days but are currently without a coach.
    They reached the knockout phase in their first appearance in the United States in 1994 but none of their appearances in 1998, 2002 and 2006 saw them advance beyond the group phase.
    Bert van Marwijk took over as coach in 2015, with the Dutchman rebuilding confidence and steering them to Russia.
    His side was built around the Riyadh-based Al Hilal club, where Osama Hawsawi is an imposing defender, and Abdullah Otayf controls midfield alongside the creative fulcrum of Salman Al Faraj and Salem Al Dawsari.
    But Dutchman van Marwijk was sacked just days after qualification was sealed when he failed to agree an extension to his contract and he was replaced by Argentina's Edgardo Bauza.
    Then Bauza, who had been fired by Argentina during their difficult qualifying campaign, was sacked after only five matches in charge of the Saudis.
    He had made a disappointing start, losing friendlies to Portugal and Bulgaria in November.
    The Saudi football federation says it is: "working on finishing the details with another manager to replace Bauza."
    None of the squad that qualified for the World Cup finals plays professionally outside Saudi Arabia, with Al Nassr and Al Ahli from the domestic league also contributing key players such as Yahya Al Shehri and Taisir Al Jassim.
    SERBIA: Serbia will head to the tournament with a youthful team minus any real pressure, having reached their first major tournament in eight years as an independent nation.
    The Serbs, who axed coach Slavoljub Muslin after qualifying due to what were deemed unconvincing displays, have yet to name his successor, with caretaker Mladen Krstajic likely to take over.
    The squad includes three survivors from the 2010 tournament in South Africa, when Serbia made a group stage exit and then failed to qualify for the next three major finals.
    Captain Branislav Ivanovic, 33, goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic, 34, and defender Aleksandar Kolarov, 32, are set to lead a pack of younger players, with 29-year-old midfield enforcer Nemanja Matic also part of the team's backbone.
    Winger Dusan Tadic led the charge in the first half of the campaign and, when his form dipped, Stojkovic and striker Aleksandar Mitrovic made sure there was to be no twist of fortune in the home straight.
    Krstajic fielded a pack of young players in recent friendlies against China and South Korea, led by Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
    Even a kind draw would present Serbia with a tough task to advance to the last 16 but they will at least be expected to play eye-catching football.
    SOUTH KOREA: South Korea followed a poor qualifying campaign with some morale-boosting friendlies against quality opposition, so it is anyone's guess which side will show up in Russia.
    Coach Uli Stielike was sacked in June after defeats in Iran, China and Qatar left Korea's qualifying hopes in the balance and his replacement, Shin Tae-yong, initially did little to inspire confidence, coaxing the side over the line with nervy scoreless draws in their final two games.
    Listless defeats to Russia and Morocco in October friendlies heightened the sense of panic in Korea and put Shin's job in peril.
    But with skipper Ki Sung-yueng looking fully fit for the first time since June and forward Son Heung-min carrying his rampaging Tottenham form into the national side, Korea played 13th ranked Colombia off the pitch in a 2-1 win on November 10.
    Serbia were fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw in Ulsan four days later as Korea delivered another energetic, eye-catching performance against a fellow World Cup qualifier.
    The performances suggest South Korea have the makings of a side that can do better than their meek group stage exit at the last World Cup in Brazil.
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