On the evening of November 19, Indonesia caused a surprise when they defeated Saudi Arabia with a score of 2-0 in the 6th match, the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup. Thanks to that, they temporarily rose to 3rd place on the rankings with 6 points.
Thus, Shin Tae-yong and his team have become the Southeast Asian team with the best results in the third qualifying round of the World Cup. This achievement was previously held by the Vietnamese team when they had 4 points after 10 matches in the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup. The Thai team also tried in this round and only had 2 points in 2018.
Japan is currently leading the group and is very close to a place in the 2026 World Cup, having a 10-point lead over the teams below.
In Group A, the situation is very attractive when Iran and Uzbekistan cannot separate the group with 16 and 13 points respectively. UAE and Qatar are chasing behind with 7 points, but have played 1 less match.
This can be considered the most unpredictable and balanced group in the third qualifying round of the Asian region.
In Group B, South Korea is far ahead of the other group with 14 points after 6 rounds. The three teams behind them, Jordan, Iraq and Oman, are competing closely for the top 2. South Korea has a lot of experience in these playgrounds, so the race in Group B will probably focus mainly on the group of 3 teams from the Middle East.
According to the format of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Asia is given more than 8 places, of which: the first 6 official places are given to the 6 teams that finish first and second in the group in the 3rd qualifying round.
The 6 teams ranked 3rd and 4th continue to participate in the 4th qualifying round to compete for 2 official tickets.
