Whatever Group that South Korea was placed in was always going to be the Group of Death as they were clearly the best team from Pot B. And with Oman in there as one of the strongest teams from Pot C then it's a no brainer. Even Kuwait will give the other three teams an honest run for their money. Group B is a Group that potentially any team in that Group could finish first or last it is so even, but hardly tough. I think the teams that finish first and second in Group A would be happy to meet anyone in Group B in the Quarters.
Because this is AFC. The same confederation that rewards 6 Asia Cup berths to countries, without having to go through qualification process. Not only to previous Asia Cup winner (imo not even the winner should get automatic qualification to next edition Asia Cup) but 2nd and 3rd place nations as well... And 2 spots to countries winning some Challenge Cup. 6 automatic berths when it should be only 1 (the host).... The same AFC that decided to let 4 countries co-host an Asia Cup in 2007. To sum up: this is AFC.
I am not counting KSA to qualify very easily from the group specially after the Qatar Asian cup hard break. Our team is slow with the present coach. We need a attack minded coach as we have a host of dribblers, playmakers and attackers in the midfield. The tactics Lopez applies is to boring to watch.
I actually like the challenge cup winner inclusions. Those smaller nations never get to play big teams unlike Europe where every single nation gets to play top teams during each WC qualifier. The Asian Cup is like the World Cup for those teams and the challenge cup is the qualifiers. It gives them an incentive to work hard and improve, helps AFC in the long run IMO.
Thanks for your support. Unlike in the Concacaf, where the leadership of the confed comes from the smaller nations of the Caribbean and where they have a strong say in confed tournament decisions, the lower tier teams of the AFC tend to get forgotten and underdeveloped. Some of them only get to play less than 4 games every 4 year cycle in AFC competitions, usually against weaker nations like themselves. And the ones that are improving never get themselves tested against the stronger nations in the AFC, because of the way the tournaments have been laid out by the AFC. It makes it difficult for them to improve as a result. This will be the strongest Challenge Cup yet. I think whoever wins in the Challenge Cup will be competitive in the Asian Cup although making the final 2 in the group for whoever wins the CC will be difficult. Turkmenistan and Palestine have given some of the teams who have qualified in the Asian Cup troubles in the past and many of the other nations have been recruiting strong players with experience in higher division leagues in Europe who will all be available this time because their clubs will be forced to release them, so I don't see the Challenge Cup winners(and that includes North Korea who barely made it out of the last edition of the Challenge Cup by penalty shootout over Turkmenistan), getting dominated like India did in the last edition of the Asian Cup except maybe against Japan. India didn't even make the Challenge Cup finals this time. Group D is the weakest group in this edition of the Asian Cup and I think the 2nd slot is still pretty much up for grabs.
But you have to remember that Jordan and Iraq improved as well. As for Iraq, we have never played against Maldives, Laos and Philippines. The only 'recent' opponent is Palestine, and we dominated them heavily (9 wins, 0 losses) We have never lost against a team participating in the 2014 Challenge Cup
It would be nice for Iraq to play against a team which they have never faced, win or lose assuming one of those teams you mentioned qualifies.
Myanmar beat India in the qualifiers, so maybe they have a chance, but it's really hard to say... would love to see Maldives make it
Palestine, the Philippines and Turkmenistan are the favorites to win the Challenge Cup, going by recent results in CC tournaments and qualifiers from the past few years, but other teams like Afghanistan (which won the SAFF championship over India) and the other teams, have also been improving in the interim and have good chances as well.
Lol that guy isn't even the backup Gk. Is he even the 3rd? He is not a sub anyways be sure of that the word you are looking for is "reserve". Back to the point I doubt that the Challenge cup winner will trouble even Jordan or Iraq. Japan and Iraq will go through.
He was the alternate sub last year and played a few games for Fulham FC already. Because he is so young and inexperienced professionally, although he has 42 caps already, they decided to loan him out to a lower division team this year to get experience as a starter but got injured. Fulham still thinks he has a bright future so they keep on renewing his contract to see how he develops.
Although, in all seriousness. I remember Iran beating Maldives in the late 90s 17:0, however, we only managed to beat them 1:0 in the 2nd leg of the second round of 2014 WC qualification. At this rate I expect them to qualify for the 2019. They increased the cap to 24 teams anyhow.
The Philippines also has a player from Eintracht Frankfurt(Stefan Schrock) in the Bundesliga, another in the Danish Superliga(Jerry Lucena) and Dutch Eredivisie(Paul Mulders) and others who are now in lower divisions but have had similar or close to top tier European league experience in the past. I don't think you should dismiss teams with players like those so easily. The Challenge Cup winners will be definite underdogs in the Asian Cup, but any team that takes them for granted might be up for a nasty surprise. Anyways, just participating in the continent's biggest tournament would be great for their development, so regardless of results it would be a win win situation for them.
Afghanistan has improved a lot, they have some players in Europe too. I think they have a good chance of winning the Challenge Cup.
^all these small Asian team players that play in Europe most of the time play in bottom league clubs and also don't even make the bench there. They are no very high rated and significant and that's why they can't make their NT have better results.
Since the Challenge Cup and other international tournaments in the past were held on non FIFA match dates, many of the European based players were never really around to help their respective teams. It is not like the Asian Cup qualifiers which were held mostly on FIFA match dates. The Asian Cup however, will be the first tournament where all the best players, both local and foreign based will be available and only then will we able to see how competitive this teams can be, although I am sure we will see glimpses of the full team during friendlies held on FIFA match days leading to the tournament.
I think it's very fitting that the final edition of the Challenge Cup lineup is looking so strong. I expect the likes of Turkmenistan, Palestine or the Philippines to put up a decent fight should one of them qualify for the Asian Cup. Never count off Afghanistan and their fighting spirit, but I feel it may be just a tad too early for them. They were under siege during the semi-final of the last SAFF Championship against Nepal and had their goalkeeper to thank for bailing them out, and also drew against what was effectively a Maldives B side in the group stage. Of course I'll be cheering on for Maldives, we have the home advantage and everything, but, assuming that we do somehow win it in May, I do not expect us to put on much of a showing (think India in 2011). We simply cannot cope with the big, physically strong sides. I've seen enough of Laos to suggest that they face the same issue.
Turkmenistan did surprisingly well in the 2004 Asian Cup. Tied Saudi Arabia 2-2, narrowly lost 3-2 to Iraq and 1-0 to Uzbekistan. But I can't see them coming out with a win in this group. Jordan improved so much since the 2011 Asian Cup. Who would've thought that they would face Uruguay in the WCQ playoffs? Since Hossam Hassan took over they declined a bit. But they are still good enough to beat the Challenge Cup winner and to give Iraq trouble. The first game between Jordan and Iraq will be the decider who will advance.
My Prediction for January 2015 Group A Australia S.Korea Group B Saudi Arabia Uzbekistan Group C Iran Qatar Group D Japan Iraq 1/4 Final Australia - Uzbekistan Saudi Arabia - S.Korea Iran - Iraq Japan - Qatar semi Final Australia - S. Korea Iran - Japan Final Australia - Japan
I don't think that will happen.. Iran will most likely top Group C and Japan Group D I expect Iran - Iraq and Japan - UAE in the QF's