I hope we win but I doubt it
Asian Cup champion Iraq will take on Pakistan in the opening round of AFC qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In other matches unveiled in the draw, Asian Cup quarterfinalist Uzbekistan will face footballing minnow Taiwan while Bahrain, who came within one match of qualifying for Germany in 2006, will open its campaign against Malaysia.
The tightest contest of the opening round looks to be between Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates, who are aiming to qualify for their first World Cup since Italia 90.
Vietnam, however, will take a psychological advantage into the tie after they defeated the UAE 2-0 at the Asian Cup.
The preliminary rounds will employ a different format from the previous editions with 43 teams from Asia teams battling it out for the 4.5 spots in a four-round qualifying process from Oct. 8 this year to Sept. 9, 2009.
Asia’s top five ranked teams, Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Iran, will get a bye and go directly to the third round while the remaining 38 teams will play the first two qualifying rounds on Oct. 8 and Nov. 18.
Teams ranked 6 to 24 were drawn against those ranked from 25-43.