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The third and final of the East Asia groups consisted of Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan and North Korea. Perhaps there was no one outright favourite among these teams, although it would probably have been expected that Japan and North Korea were the two stronger. 

North Korea had not qualified neither for the football tournament at the 1986 Asian Games nor for the 1988 Asian Cup, and in qualification for the 1988 Olympic Games football tournament, they had been disqualified after having refused to play a round of first phase matches away in Malaysia. To progress beyond the first phase of World Cup qualification would probably be deemed a success. 

Japan had at least participated both at the football tournament at the 1986 Asian Games as well as at the 1988 Asian Cup, but they’d bowed out after the initial group stage on both occasions. They’d made it to the second phase in qualification for the football tournament at the 1988 Olympic Games, but were struggling to be seen as a regional powerhouse on terms with, say, South Korea. They had won their first phase qualification group for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico ahead of the North Koreans, though, and would aim to do the same again. 

Indonesia‘s biggest claim to fame had come in 1987, when they had won the football tournament at the South East Asian Games for the very first time. In 1986, they had reached the semi-finals, no less, in the football tournament at the Asian Games, and it should indeed also be mentioned that they had made it past the first stage in qualification for Mexico ’86, before going out to a strong South Korean outfit at the next hurdle. This generation of Indonesian footballers was probably the finest the nation had ever raised. 

As for Hong Kong, they had done so well in the previous World Cup qualification, when they had won their initial four teams group ahead of China, no less. Their decisive 2-1 win in Beijing in front of 60,000 must rank as Hong Kong’s greatest ever single game success. They would subsequently lose out to Japan in the second phase, and then they’d not qualify for neither the football tournament at the 1986 Asian Games nor the 1988 Asian Cup. In qualification for the football tournament at the 1988 Olympic Games, they would once again come up against China, and having drawn 0-0 in the home fixture, they had the opportunity to copy that stunning 2-1 away win from two years earlier and progress at their great neighbour’s expense. However, on that occasion they lost by the only goal of the game, this time in Guangzhou rather than in Beijing. Hong Kong were probably not expected to do a whole lot in this qualification group, though.