June 20, 2025
The Asian elimination rounds for the World Cup finals find Iran qualifying, tied with Japan for the best results—seven wins, two draws and one loss.
Iran’s solitary loss came after it had already qualified for the finals to be played next June and July in North America—Canada, the US and Mexico being co-hosts.
All the Asian teams played their final two matches of the latest elimination round June 5 and 10. The accompanying standings show the six teams that qualified—the top two teams in each group.
There were no big surprises. Iran, Japan and South Korea each topped their group. They are the best teams in Asia—and proved it.
The second placed teams in each group also qualified. Australia qualified that way, to no surprise. And so did Jordan and Uzbekistan, who will each be going to the finals for the first time and who managed to brush aside other contenders like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Iraq. China, where they like to ask, “How can we have 1.4 billion people and can’t find 11 men who can kick a ball?,’ still can not find 11 men who can kick a ball.
China only won three of its 10 matches and lost all the other seven. Only North Korea also lost as many as seven matches. China remains an insignificant player in the world’s greatest game.
Iran’s sole loss was a 1-0 match against Qatar—and it was due to one of Iran’s players drawing two yellow cards and forcing Iran to play more than half the game with only 10 men. Defender Milad Mohammadi was the offender, getting his second yellow card in the 35th minute. Qatar lost no time taking advantage in the 41st minute, when a player with the very Arabic sounding name of Pedro Correia scored for Qatar’s sole goal of the match and Iran’s sole loss of the 10-game elimination round.
The absence of key European-based players like Sardar Azmoun, Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Ali Gholizadeh due to injuries clearly slowed the Iranian national team. This is the third time Iran has been reduced to 10 men against Qatar in official matches over the years. And Iran has lost all three of those matches.
Iran drew two matches in this elimination round, both against Uzbekistan, which came in second in Iran’s group. Iran’s final match of the round was against winless North Korea. The Korean goalkeeper was kept busy deflecting Iranian shots—and he was quite effective. Iran could not score. But then in the 68th minute, North Korea’s Kye Tam drew a second yellow card. And, on checking the video, the referee upgraded that second yellow card to a red card. That left North Korea with 10 men on the field, and Iran poured it on, with Mehdi Mohebi scoring in the 74th minute, Mehdi Taremi scoring in the 77th minute and Amir-Hossein Hosseinzadeh putting the icing on the cake with a goal in the 93rd minute.
Iran ended the round with 23 points, tied for the most with Japan. But Japan was the scoring powerhouse with 30 goals to South Korea’s 20 and Iran’s 19.
Japan astoundingly only gave up three goals in 10 matches. Australia, South Korea and Uzbekistan each gave up seven and Iran, the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia all gave up eight. That left Japan with an eye-popping goal differential of +27, South Korea trailing with a distant +13 and Iran with +11.
Iran has 12 months before the finals begin and lots of time to play friendlies and hone skills. But if past years are any indication, Iran will have a hard time finding good teams willing to play it, as its nuclear program makes it a bit of an outlier and sanctions make it hard for Iran to make or receive payments. However, Iran has already lined up one friendly with Russia, which Iran deals with in rials and rubles, and another with Chile, currently ranked 52nd in the world.
In the scoring sweepstakes during the elimination rounds all around the globe, Mehdi Taremi is tied for third with nine goals and Sardar Azmoun is tied for fourth with eight goals. But this could be misleading as a) Asia plays more elimination games than any other continent and b) Asia has played most of its games while other continents have lots more to go.
The World Cup finals have expanded this year from 32 teams to 48. Asia, guaranteed four teams in the past and a chance at a fifth, is guaranteed eight teams this year with a chance at a ninth.
Three Asian elimination rounds are now done and Iran does not need to play anymore. But there are still two more rounds to be played. This is complicated. If you’re still with us, here is the whole elimination structure.
The first round was held in October 2023. It involved only Asia’s minnows, the 20 teams ranked 27th to 46th. They competed in home and away matches with the 10 winners advancing. (All 10 have since fallen by the wayside.)
The second round took those 10 minnows and Asia’s top 26 teams, divided them into nine groups of four each, which played home and away games from November 2023 to June 2024. The top teams from each group advanced. Iran played here for the first time and easily advanced.
The third round is the one that was just completed and which saw 18 teams divided into three groups of six teams each. The top two teams in each group, including Iran, have now advanced to the World Cup finals next year.
But the third and fourth teams in each group advance to the fourth round, to be played this coming October. Those six teams will be divided into two groups of three, with the winners of each group securing a World Cup berth.
The runners-up from each group advance to the fifth round, where they will play a single match in November 2025. That winner qualifies to play a team from another continent to decide which one will become the final team to make the World Cup finals. Thus, Asia is guaranteed eight teams—the six that just won slots and the two to be determined in the next round—and may get a ninth slot. Complicated.
