Cup of hope

Soccer is a universal sport, a 24x7 pastime, and an unending battle for the ultimate glory right from Bogota to East Timor and, yes, Bahrain to Ecuador. Difficult to believe? Take a look at the sports pages to get the drift.

The memories of the 2006 World Cup are yet to fade and we are already well on our way to the 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa. The teams, right from defending champions Italy, to eternal favourites Brazil and rank outsiders like Fiji and tiny Macau, are already scrambling for pole position.

The Asian qualifying rounds at least have begun in right earnest, and for 19 nations the World Cup dream is already over. And for the remaining 19, including Bahrain, another dream has just begun.

Bahrain cleared the first hurdle by beating Malaysia 4-1 on aggregate after a goalless match in the second-leg in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Now Bahrain has to wait till November 25 before planning its route to the 2010 World Cup after the draw for the third round is made in Durban, South Africa.

It works like this. Of the 19 Asian nations that have made it to the second round, the top 11 ranked teams, including Bahrain, move into the third round and will be joined by the top five seeds in Asia - Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Iran.

The remaining eight teams will play another round of home-and-away matches while the top 16 wait for the third round draw. By the beginning of 2010, four Asian countries would have won automatic berths for the 32-team World Cup finals in South Africa, with a potential fifth on offer via a playoff with Oceania's top side.

That is after some teams have endured three knock-out rounds and two group phases, and won most of their 20-odd matches spread over more than two years.

This is the qualifying pattern for Asia alone. Qualifying route for other confederations, like the Concacaf for example, are much more complex and contentious.

Among the countries that have already left the World Cup stage are East Timor and Macau. East Timor, which does not even have a stadium fit enough to play an international match, provided hopes of a major upset by trailing Hong Kong by a solitary goal at the end of the first-leg - the goal, by the way, was accidentally scored by the Timorese themselves. But Honk Kong turned on the heat in the second-leg and beat East Timor 8-1.