After the split from the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan played their first match against Tajikistan on June 17, 1992. Uzbekistan have consistently been the strongest team out of the new Central Asian nations (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan). They won the Asian Games in 1994.

The strongest of the five former Soviet Republics to have joined the Asian Football Confederation,   they were knocked out in the final stage of Asian qualification to the 2006 FIFA World Cup after losing on the away goals rule to Bahrain. The result was subject to controversy as actually three games were played; the first, a 1-0 win for Uzbekistan, was wiped out after FIFA declared the result void after a mistake by a Japanese referee. The replay ended 1-1, and after the return finished 0-0, Uzbekistan were eliminated.
In the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, Uzbekistan was able to get past the group stage by beating Malaysia 5-0 and China 3-0. However, Uzbekistan was knocked out of the tournament in the quarterfinals stage by losing to Saudi Arabia 2-1.