DUSHANBE, November 19, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan has failed to qualify for the next round of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Singapore soccer player, who were held in the second leg in Dushanbe 1-1, moved into the next round with a 3-1 aggregate victory, Tajikistan’s Football Federation said. .
Jamshed Ismoilov gave a perfect start to Tajikistan with a first minute header but Noh Alam Shah leveled the scores with a scorcher from 30 meters in the 27
th
minute.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has been allocated 4.5 qualifying berths for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 43 teams are in the running for these spots. The seedings were based on how far a team progressed during the previous World Cup campaign. Teams ranked 1–5 get a bye from the first two knockout stages and are entered into the third round group stage. Teams ranked 6–43 enter at the first round, with teams ranked from 6–24 drawn against teams ranked from 25–43. Tajikistan was ranked 21
st
. Of the first round winners, the eight lowest remaining seeds go on to play the second round. The other teams get a bye to the third round group stage
After the split of Soviet Union, the Tajikistan national football team played its first match against Uzbekistan on June 17, 1992. They did not enter the World Cup qualifying competition until France 1998, recording four victories in their preliminary group stage including a 5-0 triumph over Turkmenistan before being knocked out by China. In a three-team qualifying section for Korea/Japan 2002, the Tajik national football team won by a record scoreline in an incredible 16-0 win over Guam before losing 2-0 to Iran. After beating Bangladesh 4-0 on aggregate in the preliminary round of qualifiers for Germany 2006, they held AFC Asian Cup semi-finals and eventual group winners Bahrain to a goalless draw on March 31 2004. The team won its first international tournament in 2006, winning the inaugural AFC Challenge Cup beating Sri Lanka 4-0 at Dhaka. Afterward, the team”s world ranking rose from 141st place to 125th place.
