Pot 1 : Australia, Iran, Japan, Uzbekistan Pot 2 : Korea Republic, UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia Pot 3 : Oman, China, Qatar, Iraq Pot 4 : Bahrain, Kuwait, DPR Korea and Challenge Cup 2014 winners. So I would want to see this : Japan, Saudi Arabia, China, Kuwaït Australia, UAE, Oman, Challenge Cup 2014 winners Uzbekistan, Korea Republic, Qatar, DPR Korea Iran, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain And you ?
I want to see rivals pitted together: Japan, Korea Repblic, China and DPR Korea in one group, and Iran, Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait in another.
Little note: when Panama and Cape Verde are higher in the FIFA rankings than any other AFC team, you need to figure out a new system. That's insane.
Two Koreas, Japan and China. How epic would it be regardless of the squad, conditioning, forms and chemistry?
The less West asian teams Japan have to face with the better. It's a football tournament, not a "human grass rolling" championship.
Anyway, we should hope an entertaining tournament with good teams. Because, when I saw that Japan can play nice games against Netherlands and Belgium, AFC depresses me a bit. Sorry but it's true. I wish our opponents improve, even if it threats our chances to win the competition We need challenges. It's the best way to prepare JNT to face to strong europeans teams. My prognosis ? A hierarchy can change overnight cuz everything in football goes very fast (we'll see clearer after WC) but today, Japan stays the favourite of the tournament (we are asian champions and we have the best results against big teams of the world). However it doesn't mean that Korea Republic, Iran, Australia or Uzbekistan can't beat us on one match. So be very careful... Behind these good teams, I expect a renaissance of Saudi Arabia (they did a very good campaign of qualifiers) or a return of Iraq... And why not an awakening of China ? No, I'm just kidding of course
I honestly wouldn't mind as much if it was during the off-season. We've come to a point where half of our A-teams are European based. I'd rather they spend that time with their club and focus on form. The whole going MIA thing in January like the African players pisses me off.
idk. Summer is ideal (aside from climate i.e. why they moved 2011 Qatar to winter) from a schedule pov, but at the same time it truncates the offseason. It's pretty bad if a lot of your players are in England with no winter break, but not as much of a problem for Bundesliga guys.
Good point, in 2011 we had 0 players in Bundesliga. Not the case anymore, although half of our KPAs are in the Prem and Championship. I thought Australia would switch it back to the summer but I guess not.
If someone won't be released (idk I'm thinking about Honda-Milan situation), it will be ok. There will be plenty of experiments to do. Plus, AFC2015 will be the test for the ones who will be succeding that god of soccer who is Yatto.
That's why I made an hypothesis. Idk if there will be some troubles or not, but we will stand on our feet without a problem.
It would depend upon if you are talking about spectator sports versus sports being played. Spectator wise, football is by far the most popular sport in China followed by basketball. Participation wise, I would say it is either table tennis or badminton. Of course, football and basketball are popular to play also.
You have to release players for all continental competitions including qualifiers. It's a matter of whether the NT coach calls the player up or not.
Hmmmm. Personally, I'm not keen on seeing another flying Kung Fu kick into Yasuda. Granted he's no longer in the mix; so I guess it'd be Uchida or Nagatomo getting a broken collar bone and missing several months. I suppose if you don't have any investment in the well-being of the players it's entertaining in a Hockey-without-pads-or-protection sort of way.
You guys need to learn how to deal with the Foot-KungFu-ball. This is how you deal with it, as demonstrated by one of my footballing heroes, Lee Eul-Yong:
If that particular tournament demonstrated anything it's that North Korea should never be allowed to officiate another game involving... well... anyone come to think of it. I was going to say East Asian nations, but on reflection they'd probably do the same thing if it was US / England / Australia / etc.
Asian football can't progress with this type of violence. Hope we'll not see any brutal team in Asian cup 2015.