North Korea qualified for its first World Cup finals since 1966 and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain stayed alive in the race to South Africa 2010 on Wednesday.
North Korea was the last of Asia’s automatic qualifiers, joining Australia, Japan and South Korea.
After Iran conceded a costly late goal to draw 1-1 at South Korea, North Korea and Saudi Arabia knew a win against each other at King Fahd International Stadium would secure a berth. Instead, they drew 0-0 and North Korea claimed the second berth in Group 2 from the Saudis on goal difference.
North Korea gave a “great performance,” said coach Kim Jong-hun.
“We focused on defending as we had come under a lot of pressure from the Saudis and I think our preparation for the game was one factor that earned the victory tonight.
“We monitored the Saudi team from the beginning of our campaign and I noticed that they have a problem in finding good strikers.”
South Korea topped the group unbeaten with four wins and four draws for 16 points. North Korea and Saudi Arabia had 12 each, Iran 11 and the United Arab Emirates 1.
Australia and Japan had already qualified, but the Aussies capped an unbeaten run through Group 1 by beating their Japanese visitors 2-1 for their sixth win. Bahrain secured third spot by defeating Uzbekistan 1-0.
As the third-place finishers, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will meet in playoffs on Sept. 5 and 9. The Saudis are trying for their fifth consecutive finals. Bahrain are still in the hunt to make their finals debut.
The winner will then face Oceania champion New Zealand on Oct. 10 and Nov. 14 for a berth in next year’s finals.
North Korea, which had allowed only five goals in seven games, concentrated on defending rather than playing to win, and Ri Myong-guk was excellent in net as Saudi Arabia dominated on attack while under pressure to win from a big home crowd.
But by the time substitute Kim Yong-jun was sent off deep in injury time, North Korea had sewn up only its second trip to a World Cup finals.
In Manama, Bahrain notched the only goal when dead-ball specialist Mahmood Abdulrahman’s free kick gave Uzbekistan keeper Ignatiy Nesterov no chance in the 74th minute in front of more than 20,000 fans at National Stadium.
Bahrain also finished with 10 men after center back Abdulla Al Marzooqi was sent off 12 minutes from time.
Tim Cahill’s second-half pair led Australia past Japan before almost 70,000 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, and rekindled memories of another pair in a win against Japan at the 2006 World Cup.
“It’s fantastic for the team to have a player like that, because you know he’ll always do what he has to do, and that’s scoring goals,” Australia coach Pim Verbeek said.
Japan scored in a lackluster first half through Marcus Tulio Tanaka, who headed in Kengo Nakamura’s corner.
Masoud Shojaei’s early rebound goal off his own shot gave Iran hope of a fourth World Cup appearance, but Park ji-sung’s 81st-minute strike for host South Korea cost Iran, which drew five of its eight matches.
