In the lead up to Australia’s next stage of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup we at the84thminute will be taking a look at our opposition in Group A. First cab off the rank is Uzbekistan, who will be the Socceroos first opponent on the 10th September 2008.

Uzbekistan, the AFC’s perennial dark horse, qualified impressively for this round of World Cup Qualifiers from Group Four, a group that contained serial qualifier Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Singapore. They managed to record five wins and suffer only one loss, that being at the hands of eventual group winner, Saudi Arabia, after both teams had already qualified with a match to spare.

Uzbekistan also managed to score the highest amount of goals in this phase of qualifiers off all groups, with an impressive tally of fifteen. Next best was Saudi Arabia with fourteen, which may or may not say something about the quality of opposition in Group 4. Equal top scorers for the Central Asians were midfielders Odil Ahmedov and Server Djeperov with four apiece.

The national team plays at the Pakhtakor Markaziy Stadium in the capital of Uzbekistan, Takshent and has a capacity of 55,000. Uzbekistan’s greatest footballing triumph came when they won the 1994 Asian Games tournament defeating China 4-2 in the final only two years after independence from the Soviet Union

Players to watch:

Maksim Shatskikh
The Uzbekistan captain and leading striker has an profilic scoring record for both club and country. A member of the national squad since 1999, Shatskikh has hit the back of the net twenty-nine times in only thirty-eight matches. He has also been voted his country’s best player fourt times, the last time being in 2007. Shatskikh recently joined Russian Premier League side Krylia Sovetov Samara after a successful nine season stint with Ukrainian side, Dynamo Kiev.

He joined Kiev in 1999 as a replacement for the AC Milan-bound Andriy Shevchenko and became an immediate hit at the Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium, scoring a season-best 20 times as the Bilo-Syni (white-blues) won the 1999/2000 league and cup double. The 30-year-old helped Dynamo claim four more league and four more cup titles and in the process scoring an impressive 118 times in 244 domestic matches, winning the Ukraine league top-scorer award for the second time in 2002/03 with a record-equalling 22 goals. Shatskikh is also the most prolific Asian in European club competition having scored 23 times in 70 games.

Server Djeperov
The 25-year-old Uzbek midfield playmaker will be certainly one to watch when the Socceroos pay a visit to the Pakhtakor Markaziy Stadium in early September. Djeperov, took over the playmaker role for the national team in 2007 and wasn’t at all phased by having to step into the big shoes of Uzbekistan legend, Mirdjalal Kasimov. Like his captain, Shatskikh, he has recently changed clubs, joining PFC Kuruvchi for the 2008 Uzbek Oliy League campaign after spending five years with current champions, FK Paxtakor Tashkent. He has enjoyed great success so far with Kuruvchi as they currently lead the league by two points and have qualified for the quarter finals of the Asian Champions League.

Djeperov has been a member of the national team since 2002 and was part of the Uzbekistan team that reached the quarter finals of the 2007 Asian Cup where they lost to eventual finalists, Saudi Arabia. In forty-five matches for the national team he has found the back of the net eleven times, four of those being in the recent Phase 3 WCQ campaign. He also sports a rather fetching mullet.



Vitaliy Denisov
Denisov is certainly a player on the rise, with the 21-year-old defender coming in third place behind both Djeperov and Shatskikh in the 2007 Uzbekistan player of the year award. As with Shatskikh, he plies his trade in the Russian Premier League, having joined FC Dnipro in 2006 after spending time CSKA Moscow and “Spartak” Nizhniy Novgorod. He has made thirty six appearance for the first team and is yet to find himself on the scorers’ sheet. The blonde-haired Denisov, who lists Arsenal as one of his favourite teams, played in all but one of the Phase 3 qualifiers for the national team and opened his scoring account for the national team in the 7-3 demoliton of Singapore.

As stated above the Socceroos will take on Uzbekistan in their first qualifying match in Takshent on 9th September 2008, with the return match in Australia being played on the 1st April 2009.

Other things to know about Uzbekistan

1.
Uzbekistan is located in the heart of Central Area and covers an area of 447,400 square km. It is a landlocked country that is surrounded by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. As of 2006, the population was approximately 27.3 million people. Ethnically, Uzbekistan comprises Uzbeks, Russians, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks and Tartars with the vast majority of its population being Muslim.

2.
Uzbekistan is basically dry and hot, although subject to extreme variations in temperature. In summer months, temperatures of 40°C are common. There is little rain (average 200mm per annum), but severe frosts and sub-zero temperatures are the norm during winter (down to -38°C).

3.
Since the post-Soviet constitution that was ratified on the 8 December 1992, Uzbekistan has only had one President, that being Islam Karimov. Constitutionally, the Government of Uzbekistan provides for democracy. In reality, the president holds a great deal of power and the legislature and judiciary has little power to shape laws. Many in the international community are concerned about ongoing human rights violations and also that the elections and referendums that have been held since independence fall well below international standards. Political parties do exist but only have been with governmental approval and must maintain a pro-government stance.

4.
Best way to get to Takshent for the game is via Kuala Lumpur with Malaysia Airlines. Total flight time being about sixteen hours. Another option is to go via Hong Kong and Moscow with Cathay Pacific and Aeroflot.

Neil Zimmerman is the editor of the84thminute and also runs the Victory In Melbourne site. On most weekends Neil can be found at a football match, be it either A-League, Victorian Premier League or a match that he happens to come across whilst walking his dogs.

Photo credit: leeshanizm on Flickr, via the84thminute photo pool.

Also thanks to my favourite travel agent Paul, who supplied me with the flight details to Takshent, not that I’ll be going anyway.