Wednesday News & Notes: 2011 Asian Cup, Jones, Dempsey, and More

Here's some news and notes for your Wednesday evening:

2011 AFC Asian Cup Field Set

I'm a little late on this one, but qualification for next year's Asian Cup concluded a week ago.  The tournament hosts, Qatar (ranked 92nd in the world by FIFA), will be joined by the following 15 (FIFA ranking in parentheses):

Australia (23)
Japan (46)
South Korea (53)
Saudi Arabia (57)
Bahrain (63)
Iran (67)
Uzbekistan (75)
China (83)
Iraq (87)
Kuwait (88)
Syria (101)
North Korea (102)
Jordan (106)
UAE (115)
India (132)


While the regional powers like Australia and Japan will surely be in the mix, don't rule out one of the lower ranked teams from making a Cinderella run to the title.  After all, it was 80th ranked Iraq shocking the international soccer community back in 2007 by knocking off Australia, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia en route to winning the tournament and earning a berth in the Confederations Cup.

In addition to hosting Asia's top tournament, Qatar is also making a bid for the 2022 World Cup.  Next summer's Asian Cup, however, won't be an audition for the selection committee, as the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 editions of the World Cup will be chosen months earlier, in December of 2010.  Five venues will be used to host the matches, with four of those located in the captial, Doha.  This will be the first Asian Cup played in the Middle East since 2000, when Lebanon hosted the tournament.

The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four on April 23.  At stake are both continental supremacy and a spot in the 2013 Confederations Cup.


Cote d'Ivoire Still Searching For a Coach

Once touted as one of the teams poised to make a run in South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire now looks like a team in disarray following the firing of coach Vahid Halilhodzic.  After Halilhodzic guided the team to its second consecutive World Cup berth, his spot at the helm seemed secure.  But a disappointing quarterfinals exit at the Africa Cup of Nations in January spelled the end of his tenure in charge of the Elephants.  I don't think this was a particularly good decision (Halilhodzic lost just one game in two years as coach), but it was done nonetheless and the Cote d'Ivoire FA is now scrambling to find a replacement just three months away from their World Cup opener.

Some big names have been floated around the vacancy, like Guus Hiddink and Sven Goran Eriksson, but to this point no one has been hooked.  The newest name in the conversation is Philippe Troussier.  The Frenchman is best known for his success with Japan from 1998-2002, when he won the 2000 Asian Cup and AFC Coach of the Year award, led his team to a second place finish at the 2001 Confederations Cup, and guided the hosts to the Round of 16 in the '02 World Cup. 

Overall, I think the Cote d'Ivoire FA have really put themselves in a tough spot.  Their players voiced their desire to have Hiddink at the helm (who has since signed with Turkey), so any new coach might have a little bit of an uphill battle in winning over the team.  Further, the team's pre-World Cup preparations are taking a serious hit without any coach.  The Elephants played without a coach against South Korea last week, dropping a 2-0 decision in London.  Whoever gets the job will have a tall task to familiarize themselves with the player pool, select a roster, and prepare the team with just two friendlies (Paraguay and Japan) and three months' time.

I'm sure Brazil, Portugal, and North Korea don't mind seeing their Group G opponent hitting a rough patch so close to the tournament.  For the sake of a full-strength and entertaining Group of Death, though, I'm hoping that Cote d'Ivoire can pull it together before their June 15 opener.


Dempsey Travels With Fulham

Clint Dempsey looks likes he's on track for a return from the knee injury he suffered against Blackburn back in January.  He is traveling with his team for their Europa League match against Juventus, and all indications are that he isn't far from returning to Roy Hodgson's squad.  Hopefully this new bit of news will help some USMNT breath a little easier as the World Cup approaches.  Dempsey should not only be healthy by the time national team camp rolls around, but he'll likely be fully match fit after a month and a half of club games and training.


Jones Says He Wants to Play in South Africa

In an interview with a German newspaper, Jermaine Jones says he still has hopes of playing for the US in the 2010 World Cup.  At this point, though, I just don't see Jones as a part of the 2010 picture.  Months after his initial surgery, he still isn't healthy and it doesn't look like he'll be back on the playing field in the coming weeks.  Even if Jones can somehow get better very quickly, there is no guarantee that he'll even get any club minutes in the final months of the Bundesliga season thanks to some friction with his manager at Schalke.  I can't see Bob Bradley calling in a player with no experience with the USMNT in for the World Cup when other adequate options are available, namely Maurice Edu and Ricardo Clark.

Yes, Jones has tons of talent and is a fantastic player; there's no denying that.  But with little match experience over the past year and injury issues, would he be more useful than Edu or Clark in South Africa?  There's also the matter of locker room cohesion; how would the team react if a guy who they felt was deserving a spot was left off of the World Cup roster in favor of someone with exactly zero minutes of USMNT experience?  I just don't think it's worth the risk, and choosing him over either of the aforementioned defensive mids would be wishful thinking, at best, at this point.

Maybe Jones will make a miraculous turnaround and force me to rethink my stance.  The way things have gone to this point, though, I really do not see that happening.  I do wonder, however, if we'd be having this discussion if  Jones had joined Oguchi Onyewu and Charlie Davies in rehab with Jim Hashimoto months ago.

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