Uzbekistan national football team

The Uzbekistan national football teamimage:Uzbekistan football team|Uzbekistan football team symbolizes Uzbekistan in the international football competitions. Controlled by the Uzbekistan Football Federation, this team is a member of the Asian Football Confederation.

Nicknamed as White Wolves, the head coach of this team is Vadim Abramov. Timur Kapadze took most of the caps record with 68 appearances. The top scorer is Makrim Shatskikh who scored 30. Pakhtakor Markaziy Stadium is the home stadium of this team, with FIFA Code being “UZB”. This team is ranked 87 as per FIFA rankings and their highest rank was 45 in 2006.

Uzbekistan team won the Asian Games tournament in 1994 as debutants, though they were unable to make an impact on the continental stage till they reached the last eight of the AFC Asian Cup in 2004. This time, they were defeated by Bahrain team after a penalty shoot-out. However, the team won whilst playing against Iraq in the second qualifying match for Germany in 2006. The team managed to score goals taken by Alexander Geynrikh and Maksim Shatskikh, thus reaching to the last eighth place. By the final qualifying round, the team managed to finish in the third place, and set up a play-off against Bahrain, advancing at their own expense.

After three foreign coaches, in a span of three years, Hans Jurgen Gede from Germany, Englishman Bob Houghton and Vladimir Nepomniatchi from Russia, the Uzbekistan team focused on Rauf Inileev, their former Olympic coach. In 2010, at the FIFA World Cup, the team moved to the fourth place of Asian qualifying after they won the first four matches. But, in the final round of the qualifying match, the team finished in the last position in Group A and was behind Australia, Qatar, Japan and Bahrain with four points from eight matches.