On September 3, 2005, at Stadium Pakhtakor in Tashkent, Uzbekistan e Bahrain they are playing the first leg of the playoff AFC overlooking the World: from that match, in fact, the challenger of will emerge Trinidad e Tobago in the last, decisive barrage before Germania 2006. At the 39th when the race director, the Japanese Toshimitsu Yoshidawhistles a penalty kick for theUzbekistanthe White Wolves are already leading for 1-0thanks to the goal scored just before the quarter of an hour by Mirjalal Kasimov.
He introduces himself from the diskette Sergey Djeparovstill the all-time record holder of the Uzbek national team, and does not fail: 2-0. On the contrary, nobecause the referee, noticing the presence of some Uzbek players in the penalty area, decides to delete. Surprisingly, however, instead of opting for the repetition of the penalty, as required by the regulation, decides to do resume the game with a kick of indirect punishment in favor of Bahrain. THE’Ufathe Uzbek federation, doesn’t fit. Appeal the decision and file a appeal officialinvoking the victory by default. The Presidency of the Organizing Committee of the 2006 FIFA World Cup accepts the formal protest of the White Wolves, but does so only partially: the Office, also taking into account the referee’s admission, takes note of the technical error and establishes the repetition of the match, rejecting Ufa’s request.
Even if they don’t know it yet, this is it the exact moment in which the dream of the White Wolves of qualifying for the first, historic time for a World Cup, comes true shattered. FIFA’s decision, in fact, will penalize Uzbekistan: after two very tight matches, culminating with two draws (1-1/0-0), it will be the away goal of Talal Yousef – scored in the replay of the offending match – to sanction the exit from the scene of Uzbekistan, launching the Bahrain towards it interzonal play-off with Trinidad and Tobago, then anyway perso.
Nine years later, in the AFC playoffs with the Jordanthey would instead have been i penalty kicks to block Uzbekistan’s path to the inter-confederal play-off. A real one cursethat of the World Cup, for the White Wolves. Uzbekistan, in fact, has always qualified for the Coppa d’Asiasince 2004 it has constantly moved beyond the initial group and in 2011 it also reached the semi-finals of the greatest continental tournament ofAFC. But he has not yet managed to qualify for the final stage of a World. A spell which, however, also thanks to the expansion of the format a 48 teamsfinally seems on the verge of being broken. After the success with the North Koreathe White Wolves lead together with theIran il group A of the third phase of the Asian qualifiers (le first two they go to the World Cup directly), at a safe distance from Qatar e United Arabs. Second We Global Footballa portal specialized in probabilistic estimates on football, the national team led by the former Dorian Lucky Katanec would have over 80% of the chances of obtaining the direct pass to North America.
The rise of the Uzbek national team, the more noble Central Asia, however, starts from afar. Sowing a youth level it was one of the important ones. The results are there for all to see: just to stay in recent years, at junior level, the White Wolves have conquered the U23 Asian Cup (2018) and reached others two finals (2022, 2024), won the Coppa d’Asia U20 (2023, in the featured photo), reached the eighths of final at World U20 (2023) and participated for the first time in the Olympics (2024). Confirmations also come from ranking Fifain continuous and progressive climbing: the White Wolves now sit in place number 58 of the world ranking, 13 positions below the historical record, set between 2006 and the 2007.
Much of the credit goes to Good luck Padlock. Landed on the Uzbek planet in 2021to rebuild on rubble technical and emotional of a failure to qualify for the last round of the preliminaries (never happened in the history of Ufa), the Slovenian coach is very close to completing the mission iridescentthanks to a football idea pragmaticand in some ways reactionaryto which he has always remained faithful. “I don’t like this modern football of today. We can’t press per 90 minutes. You can also obtain results in another way,” he declared, photographing a little the essence of their beliefs.
Katanec, then, was particularly intelligent in putting the turbo on replacement generationalvalorising and exploiting the increasingly rich reservoir of talented youth selections. Alongside the Roma player Eldar Shomurodovstar, soul and charismatic leader of the Uzbek selection – best international scorer of 2022 thanks to his goals for the national team – various ones popped up Urunov, Khusanovbut above all Abbasbek Faizullaevelectric and imaginative winger, named best player of the last season Coppa d’Asia U20.
The key players, however, do not play in their home country. Uzbekistan, in fact, has begun to export talents abroad, even towards the Top 5 European leagues: in addition to Roma’s Shomurodov, for example, Khusanov is already worth around 5 million euros (source Transfer market) and has already been playing in for a year and a half Ligue 1 with the French of Lens. The West’s football embargo on Russia then did the rest. It forced Russian teams to fish in Central Asia, effectively accelerating the transfer of players to the RPL: this is the case, for example, of the starlet Fayzullaev, signed by CSKA Moscow. If on the one hand all this has impoverished the local championship, on the other it has favored it development of Uzbek players, contributing to the growth of the national team, now one step away from World. With four games to play and the chasers behind be pointsfor arithmetic there is still a bit to go, but the road seems to be on its way already traced. The White Wolves see the World Cup and are ready to bite it.
