World Cup Soccer 2022 Qatar

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Socceroos coach Holger Osieck keen to start Cup preparations

Thanks, silly me, lol, of course they had a replacement for Bradley ready to go ..
just heard the Australia Asia draw, on the radio, while off to a touch of shopping ..

AAP .. From: No Source .. July 31, 2011 7:23AM

Video (1:07) .. inside .. Brazil 2014 World Cup .. Australia [23] will face Saudi Arabia [92], Oman
[107] and Thailand [119] in the next stage of qualifying for the World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014.

SOCCEROOS coach Holger Osieck says he will start gathering information
on his side's opponents for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers immediately.

Australia have been drawn with Saudi Arabia, Oman and Thailand in Group B
of the third round of the Asian Qualifiers for the 2014 showpiece in Brazil.

The draw for the confederation qualifiers took place early on Sunday morning in Rio, at an event hosted by
FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke along with a Brazilian football legends including Zico and Ronaldo.

Osieck, who is currently in Manizales to watch the under-20s World
Cup Colombia, said he's looking forward to the start of the campaign.

"Now we are aware of which teams we will be playing in qualification, our first step is to collect
all necessary information about our opponents so we are fully prepared for the matches," Osieck said.

"We will start our preparations when we get the team together in Wales for our
friendly match and then its just a short time before our first match against Thailand."

The Socceroos are scheduled to play their first match of the third round at home against
Thailand on Friday, September 2 and then Saudi Arabia away on Tuesday, September 6.

Matchday three in October sees the side host Oman, before away games
against Oman and Thailand on 11 November and 15 November respectively.

The final match of the third round of Asian qualifiers will be against Saudi Arabia at home on Wednesday 29 February 2012.

All venues and kick-off times are expected to be confirmed by the AFC by the end of August.

After playing in the home-and-away format, the winners and runners
-up from each group will advance to the fourth round of Asian Qualifiers.

The 10 teams in the fourth round will be divided into two groups of five and the top two teams from
each group will qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This round will also have a home-and-away format.

Third-best teams from Round 4 will play home-and-away in Round 5 and the winner will qualify for
a Round 6 playoff against a team from the South American confederation to qualify for the finals.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/soccer/australia-draws-world-cup-foes/story-e6frfg8x-1226105309072

Fingers crossed, the rankings suggest the Socceroos should sneak through.