After the victory over Australia, Japan won the World Cup tickets in the early round, and Saudi Arabia was able to advance early. The birth of the five-point team in the Asian region also proves that the gap in strength between Asian teams is widening, and the national football team has gradually changed from a second-rate team in Asia to a third-rate team.
In addition to Japan and Saudi Arabia in Group B, South Korea and Iran in Group A have also advanced to the qualified, plus host Qatar, and 5 Asian teams have already won World Cup tickets.
In fact, they have also been Regular World Cup regulars. Among them, South Korea has qualified for the World Cup for 10 consecutive times (a total of 11 times), Japan has 7 consecutive times (a total of 7 times), Iran has 3 times (a total of 6 times), and Saudi Arabia has 2 consecutive times (a total of 6 times).
Despite not being able to get tickets to the World Cup directly, Australia still has hope of qualifying through the play-offs. Since joining the AFC in 2006, Australia has played in three World Cups in 2010, 2014 and 2018.
In fact, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Australia are the five strongest teams in Asia at present. In FIFA's 2021 year-end rankings, these five teams rank in the top five in Asia, the first group in Asia. Judging from the points of the top 12 matches, only these 5 teams have scored more than 15 points, of which South Korea, Iran and Japan have scored more than 21 points.
In the round of 12, the United Arab Emirates and Oman each scored 9 points, showing good strength, plus The World Cup host Qatar, which ranks sixth in Asia, the three teams form a second echelon.
On the contrary, the 8th-ranked national football team and the 9th-ranked Iraq, the two previous second-rate teams, performed poorly, scoring only 5 points each, the same as Syria, only higher than Vietnam, which scored 4 points, and even lower than Lebanon. Judging from the FIFA rankings, the national football team is still a second-rate team in Asia, but if it cannot get rid of the current situation, then the national football team will soon truly become a third-rate team in Asia.
The 2026 World Cup is expected to expand to 48 seats, of which 8 teams in Asia will qualify. From the current point of view, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia surpass other Asian teams, and the national football team will face fierce competition with the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Iraq and other teams.
If you can't get out of the trough quickly, then even if the World Cup is expanded to 48 teams, the national football team may still be difficult to qualify.