who makes his living with Eintracht Frankfurt in the German Bundesliga.And Serb coach Bora Milutinovic will be looking for a double-digit score his side hosts the Maldives at the Shianxi Provincial Stadium on April 22 in their first group match.
Indonesia, runners-up in last year's Tiger Cup, were beaten 4-0 by China at the Asian Cup last year. But Milutinovic admitted at the time that it was a difficult match.
Indonesia now have a new man at the helm in Benny Dollo and their hopes of an upset will rest with the PSM Makassar trio of Hendro Kartiko, Bima Sakti and Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto.
They open their campaign at home to the Maldives on April 8 before heading to China on May 13.
Indonesia host the group favourites two weeks later.
All matches in the group will be played on a home and away basis from April 1 until May 25.
In addition to host nations Japan and South Korea, two or three nations will qualify from the Asian Football Confederation for the finals co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.
While Cambodia will struggle to take the points, their real problems start a fortnight later when they play host to the Maldives.
At this stage, it's not certain that they'll have a stadium.
Renovations on the capital's premier Olympic Stadium ceased a month ago when the contractor walked off the job claiming lack of funds, leaving embarassed football officials scouring the city for another venue.
They settled on the crumbling, derelict French colonial-era Lambert Stadium on the banks of the Tonle Sap river and workers have begun hand planting the grass pitch -- blade by blade.
"It will be ready in time for the April 15 home game against the Maldives. We will also play China here on May 6," says Khek Ravy, president of the Cambodian Football Federation.
Despite the optimism, the task looks all but impossible. With the clock ticking, there's twisted metal and rubble everywhere.
Although few expect a victory on Sunday, Cambodian officials are confident the young team with no seasoned internationals team will do its best.
"We have been training in Thailand to help bring up our standard, to try reach an international level of play," says Kul Sophana, executive secretary of the Cambodian Football Federation.
"We can't say we expect to win. But if we look at history, especially the last Tiger Cup, we are getting better," he said.
"Cambodian football is on the move."
Cambodia had a reasonable team in the 1960s but progress was halted when civil war erupted in 1975.
The nation began to pick up the pieces in the mid-90s and stunned everyone by holding Indonesia to a 1-1 draw in the qualifying round for the 1998 World Cup.
The winners of the 10 Asian group qualify for the next round where the teams will be divided into two groups of five.
The winners of these groups will play in the finals with the runners-up fighting it out in a two-legged play-off for the right to challenge a European team for a third finals berth.
China move closer to World Cup after win over Indonesia (2001-05-27)China Beat Maldives in World Cup Qualifier (2001-04-23)China begin long march for World Cup glory (2001-04-01)English League Cup: Crystal Palace 2, Liverpool 1 (2001-01-11)Soccer-China's Fan to retire when contract ends (2000-12-08)
