According to this recent article by The Telegraph: China vs. S. Korea, Japan vs. S. Korea, and Iran vs. Saudi Arabia are among the 20 fiercest international football rivalries. However, I think that's pretty historical and political. Or maybe these sides have not been able to face each other as much as fans would have desired. Which match ups do you guys think are the fiercest football rivalries in Asia or have potential to be one? (AFC has changed a bit with Australia joining in and Saudi going into a coma.) Keep the banters fruitful but friendly. Refrain from personal insults.
Iran's rivalry with Saudi has died down but has the potential to turn into something else both in ACL and WCQ if they're grouped together. The Saudis recently mixed politics into football as well wanting to play on neutral grounds saying Iran is dangerous for them when Iran is hosting games for themselves, Iraqis, and Afghans. AFC granted them their wish. Although, it will on neutral grounds...this will turn into something. Iran could also potentially have a rivalry with Australia but they just don't seem to play each other. Iran vs. S. Korea: I've had enough of it. Another WCQ group with them and I'll start having white hair considering how the last games went both prior, during, and post. Too much drama.
The potential meaningful rivalries for me are Iran vs S.Korea and Japan vs Australia. But the most entertaining real rivalry is Japan vs S.Korea in my opinion. (it is old, politically charged with a history of bad blood, both teams are almost equal in term of power now, and it goes beyond football...basketball, volleyball, etc)
The fuk? China and Korea??? Dude they've only beaten us once. North Korea is a more challenging rival than China.
Iraq vs Kuwait, although not so much nowadays, used to be one of the fiercest rivalries. Still is a fierce rivalry, always look forward to playing them
for a decade now most australians probably consider japan our direct rivals because weve played them quite a lot over the last 10 years from internationals to juniors, and even club football. dunno if japanese fans look at it the same way in recent times south korea has become a rival of ours culminating in the asian cup final, but again not sure how their fans feel about us, but this is all from an australian point of view
There is no rivalry between S. Korea and China. Out of all foreigners, Chinese hate Japanese the most. I mean all Northeast Asian countries have something against Japan with the exception of Taiwan (aka Japan's dog) because Japan colonized the region and they haven't apologized to the victims unlike their former ally (Nazi) Germany. Southeast Asian countries also experienced the Japanese colonial rule. But Japan spent tons of money in the region and they were brainwashed into being pro-Japan. Until the fall of the Imperial Japan, Japanese were psychopaths and thought other Asians were nothing but sub-human.
Japanese leaders apologized time and time again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan On the other hand, European countries have never said sorry to former their colonies. When was the last time UK apologized to India? When was the last time France apologized to Algeria?
Britain's treatment of Indians was no where near as atrocious as the treatment of civilians by the Japanese army. There was no equivalent to the rape of Nanking, Unit731, Bataan Death March etc in British India. Japanese army used Indians for target practice when they invaded British India in 1942. https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/2v9nrn/japanese_troops_using_indian_pows_for_target/ http://i.imgur.com/LBhOnm4.jpg Just read their comments.
The Murayama speech in 1995 is published on the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/press/pm/murayama/9508.html
Iran vs Korea rivalry is almost dead. It will end if we enjoy the fifth consecutive victory over them.
I don't blame them. Japan has been always friendly towards us since before Indian independence. They helped India to gain independence during World War 2 by supporting our freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Not Gandhi but Japan Kicked out Britain from India http://indiafacts.org/not-gandhi-but-japan-kicked-out-britain-from-india/ Iran has one of the greatest rivalries in the world