Socceroos Asian Cup qualifying draw

The Socceroos will face its closest Asian neighbour Indonesia, plus Oman and Kuwait in its qualifying group for the 2011 Asian Cup.

The Socceroos will face its closest Asian neighbour Indonesia, plus Oman and Kuwait in its qualifying group for the 2011 Asian Cup.

Australia was drawn in Group B of the qualifying series earlier today in Doha, Qatar, where the tournament will be held.

Matches will commence in January 2009 with two matches scheduled, with further matches in late 2009 and throughout 2010. No schedule is available as yet.

It will be the first time the Socceroos will play its closest rival in Asia in an official competition since Australia entered the Asian Confederation, although the two countries have met four times in World Cup qualifiers in 1973 and 1981. In all Australia has played Indonesia on 13 occasions, winning 10, drawing 2 and losing the once.

Oman and Kuwait will be familiar to the Australian players from the last Asian Cup, with Oman in Australia-s group at the finals, while Kuwait finished behind Australia and Bahrain in the qualifiers for the 2007 finals.

The top two from the five groups will progress to the finals and will join Qatar (as hosts), Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic (top three at the 2007 edition), plus the winners of the 2008 and 2010 AFC Challenge Cup competitions.

Group A will see Australia-s World Cup qualifying foes Japan and Bahrain once again do battle in the same qualifying group and will be joined by Hong Kong and Yemen.

In Group C, Uzbekistan and UAE will be joined by Malaysia and India; Group D will see Vietnam, China, Syria and Lebanon face off, while in Group E, Iran will be hot favourites to advance with Thailand, Jordan and Singapore all battling for the second spot.