25/1/2011 Asian Cup SF: Australia - Uzbekistan

Great news. Please leave now if you have nothing relevant to add.

 

Well, to be correct, S.Korea did not beat Iran in regulation either. And we don't know how that Australia-S.Korea game would have ended if it was played after 90 minutes.

That said, this Asian Cup clearly confirmed for me that Iran had fallen behind Japan and South Korea and while its harder to say how we would fare against Australia, overall there is no doubt that Australia rate among the top 3 Asian sides and Iran doesn't.

Incidentally, I feel bad for the Uzbeks getting spanked against Australia. They certainly didn't deserve finishing an otherwise good tournament for them with a 6:0 spanking. On the other hand, I had already said earlier, despite my respect for the Uzbeks, I don't rate them as among the top 4 in Asia and, therefore, do find their presence in the semifinal more a product of circumstance than true merit. The Uzbeks are one of the top 8 sides in Asia and that's were ordinarily their journey should end.

 

We also don't know whether Iran could have topped a group with SK in it, right?

I only added that as a barb directed purely at pf, nothing else meant by it.

I find all these 'If's", "but"s and "maybe's" tiresome. One could assess every tournament in history through if's and but's and get a different result for each and every one.

And some people obsess with pigeon-holing teams into "tiers" simply to make themselves feel better. Then there is the outright disrespect that they have for other nations. If I've learnt anything from being in the AFC it's that any team is capable of getting a result against more fancied opposition.

We spanked Qatar in Melbourne in WC qualification, 4-0 iirc, but we scraped home a lucky last minute equaliser for 1-1 in Doha. Japan had a tough match against Qatar last week; whilst some Japanese fan's were skeptical of a Jordanian fan's positive comments about his team prior to the AC starting, Jordan gave them a run for their money and could hold their heads high.

But it's seen by some non-Qatarans and non-Joradanians as proof that their team is equal with Japan. All to make themselves feel better about being knocked out.

Me too. They're a better team than a 0-6 indicates, just got some things wrong on the night. Next time we meet them it's highly unlikely to be as lopsided.

 

They deserved to lose by even more their defending was absolutely terrible, amateur like some would say. They have nobody to blame but themselves they sucked badly when it counted.

 

It was 0-0 in Doha. We have spanked Qatar every other game.

 

aussie arrogance at its best

 

I did not watch Australia v Uzbekistan in its entirety, but I did watch the start of the game until Australia took the early lead and thereafter had one eye on the match until it went 2:0. Hence, I might be off somewhat, but my impression of why the game ended 6:0 is as follows:

1) The Uzbeks started out giving Australia less respect than they should have given them, probably because they felt Australia's defense was suspect. In other words, they wanted to take the game to Australia, which made them play less compact in the back and allowed Australia an easier time to get through the Uzbek defense.

2) Once a team falls behind another team, and tries to change the scoreline by pushing up further in search of goals, if the team that is pushing up is weaker than its opponent, it can get punished badly and suffer a fate such as what the Uzbeks experienced. In that sense, what happened to the Uzbeks is similar to what happened to say North Korea against Portugal. North Korea showed against Brazil that it can defend vigorously, but against Portugal they started more ambitiously and once they fell behind, continued on the theme of trying to score by becoming even more reckless, giving a team that had much more class and skill (Portugal) a lot of easy chances to punish them. I assume the same or something similar happened to the Uzbeks.

3) The strengths of Uzbek football match up better against some sides (e.g., Arab teams) and not as well against others (e.g., Australia). Essentially, the Aussies are better than the Uzbeks in even those areas where the Uzbeks might hold a competitive advantage against some other Asian teams. In other words, Australia is not a good match up for Uzbekistan and losing 3 times to the Aussies in 3 games they have faced you is proof of that much.

 

He was taking a swipe at pf. Get a grip.

 

McKay has really stepped up playing for us

 

Uzbekistan got a big slap into reality, damn i can't believe i rated them so highly before this game. They looked good in WCQ....well at least in the first couple of rounds.

 

What you witnessed there was some famous aussie humour at it's best.

Is this a joke? I watched 2 minutes of that video and saw an iraqi elbow an aussie in the head, and an iraqi guy jump and get nudged slightly and fall over nowhere near the ball. Don't really see much wrong with that refereeing, unless you are a disgruntled Iraq supporter. Why don't you watch some of the calls the linesmen (the nearside one in particular) made during the Aus. vs Uzbek game.

To all the people whining about a team having an "easier run" and "not even having to play X team"- It's a freaking tournament. If you don't like the format, don't turn up next time. All this "what if", "but if", "maybe if" should go into a separate "The woes and whinges of the eliminated teams" thread

There is too much bs going on in this thread.

Pim's probably thinking: "Vwhy didn't I sink to use dish guy". Holger leaving Emmo out for McKay sends a big message to the A-League players that if you play well enough you will get your chance. Maybe some of our team will get some interest from bigger clubs after this Asian Cup.

 

When you win a group you get to play a team that comes second. If you lose to that team it means one of two things. It could be bad luck that you got a good second team, or it could mean that if you were drawn in the other group to begin with you wouldn't have gotten that far. You can complain about having to play Sth Korea in a quarter final when Australia got Iraq, but the fact is if you think you got a tough draw then Bahrain had a much tougher one, and I don't see them whining at all about it.

 

Have you not noticed your compatriots (persianfootball) constant trolling of this & other threads? For god's sake, Rick Chelsea wasn't serious.

 

Rick Chelsea is no better than persianfootball, he is a troll too. You are also no better, for being an apologist for this kind of arrogant trollish behavior.

 

I'm not being an apologist, I'm simply pointing out he is giving back what pf has been giving. What Rick said was uneccessary but then so are alot of the comments by pf. Be nice if a thread could just stay on topic for once rather than going on about how Australia got a free pass to the final etc etc.

 

Farken arrogant aussies, farken

 

aussie aussie aussie!

 

When your good you can be arrogant!
BWAHAHAHAHA Sore loser!

 

Australia can't be in the same group as Korea Republic (that's if AFC use the same system as last time).

But a group with Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Uzbekistan is possible.

 

Re. The trolling from all sides.... Can we move on now?

 

I think you might be wrong, as the top two seeds are Japan and Korea, with Australia and North Korea being the tire two seeds. I, for one, want both Australia and Japan in our group.

 

Yes, you're right - I was looking at an older seeding list. Thanks!

 

There could actually be a WCQ group with Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Uzbekistan. Imagine that.

 

Forza australia!

:d

 

God, so so so so so arrogant.

Tisk tisk.