2017 AFC Cup

Controversial win by Home U in Singapore. 2 goals by Ceres were nullified by the referee and 1 questionable call on penalty spot for Home. Good thing there's still a return leg in Bacolod.

http://www.foxsportsasia.com/footba...em707547/home-beat-ceres-five-talking-points/

Ceres may have lost on the night, but the result could have easily been very different if several borderline decisions made by the officials had gone the other way. First there was the penalty after nine minutes. Yes, there was contact in the box as Stipe Plazibat attempted to shoot after a corner had fallen kindly for him, but he most certainly made a meal of his fall.
Japanese referee Hiroyuki Kimura was convinced, however, and duly pointed to the spot. Then on 28 minutes after a Kevin Ingreso free kick had drifted into the net, Carli de Murga was harshly penalised for interfering with play, and just four minutes later Ceres had the ball in the net again, only for Iain Ramsay to be flagged offside when he looked to be level.
All three decisions were debatable, but the fact that all of them went in Home’s favour will certainly leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the Ceres players and coaching staff.

 

FT Ceres Negros (Philippines) 2-0 Home United (Singapore) (3-2 aggregate)

Ceres advances to the Interzone Playoff Semifinals against Istiklol

Porteria, Manny Ott

 

AFC 1st leg on the road

FT Istiqlol 4-0 Ceres

It is going to be very hard for Ceres FC to come back from a 4-0 deficit in their home leg.

 

AFC 2nd leg
FT Ceres 1-1(1-5 aggregate) Istiklol



Istiklol advances. Good effort by Ceres as they dominated most of the stats, but ultimately it wasn't enough.

 

Bengaluru advances to semifinal after 0-0 draw in Pyongyang (4-0 aggregate win). They will face Istiqlol.

Al-Wahda of Syria defeated Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 2-1 yesterday. Iraqis scored huge goal in 90th minute. Return leg is scheduled for 26 September. Other semifinal will kick-off one day later with return leg on 18 October.

Crazy schedules, I hope they will change something.

 

Yes, but it is actually competition's semifinal - West is one half of bracket, all other zones are the other half.

 

2017 AFC Cup final:

4 November

Istiklol vs. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (in Tajikistan).

 

I really like how India, who have always been quite poor on national and club level, can't even make it past Istiklol (who were made to play in the defunct President's Cup).

The entire competition is designed to get an Indian club in the final- It's even more obvious with this stupid revamping of the format.

Somebody will need to explain to me how Indian Clubs were given access to play in the AFC Cup and Champions League but their national team were given access to the Challenge Cup.

Of course they were also the only side in 2011 to be granted access to both the Asian Cup qualification tournament AND Challenge Cup.

The AFC is always bending over backwards to make sure India gets access. That ridiculously easy group in qualifying will only mask over the cracks. I really hope India and the AFC are embarrassed at the finals in 2019.

 

Also interesting is the fact AFC (and FIFA) allowed India to have two top level competitions running side by side, something that, as far as I know, has never happened before. The Super League - new kid on the block - has even been given an AFC Cup slot.

But it's understandable - AFC/FIFA want football to take roots in India.

 

India applied to take part in 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers - it was opened for every MA to apply - but after winning Challenge Cup they withdrawn from qualifiers.

Super League, from now on, shares 1st level status in India and will likely become sole 1st level league in few years. AFC counts on their popularity and money. Bengaluru transferred from I-League to Super League.

India is huge market, football rises there, AFC must use it the best they can. We see what FIFA and UEFA do to get more money, it should not wonder when AFC does it, they already followed UEFA's footsteps and unreasonably enlarged Asian Cup to 24 teams. LOL.

BTW, Indians were against this AFC Cup format because it decreases their number of points (two teams from India play each other in group and lose points for Champions League berth) and only one team can qualify to knock-out stages so I wouldn't say changing format was in their interest.

 

I don't know about that. It was all very opaque. For example, Maldives couldn't double dip- they were eliminated by Lebanon in the preliminary and couldn't play in the 2008 edition.

Korea DPR wasn't put into the draw either.

I really think that the AFC thought the Challenge Cup would be India's express lane to the Asian Cup and the moment they flopped at the 2012 CC Finals (0 points, 0 goals) and failed to qualify for the 2014 edition they had to rethink EVERYTHING.

Which is of course what led them to a 24 team finals with a suspiciously easy group for India to navigate.

As a fan of a country who gets NO favors from the AFC I could never bring myself to root for India I hope they continue to fall flat on their face.

 

Good luck to you on your hatred for India which is very unreasonable I must say.

AFC changes the entire format of Asian cup qualification so as to accommodate India and gives them the easiest possible group is the most ridiculous statement ever. I read here earlier when a member said that India would be no match for Kyrgyz and Myanmar and now India is the first to qualify from that group. Maybe AFC rigged those games as well??

 

Yes, India is on a good run BUT who have they played in that run?
Laos, Puerto Rico, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, St. Kitts & Nevis, Macao, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan .

Of all those opponents, only one (Myanmar/Burma in 1968) has ever featured at an Asian Cup or continental tourney.

India's fortunes were boosted by being drawn in a group that includes three teams that used to participate in the Challenge Cup. They got the weakest Pot 1 team (Kyrgyzstan), the second weakest Pot 3 team (Myanmar) and the second weakest Pot 4 team.

I never said that that was rigged BUT expanding the tournament to 24 teams was done explicitly to bring in nations like India.

Those are all facts.

My opinion- which may or may not be true- is:

The security of a second playoff round was unnecessary and that seems like it was done just in case a team like India (or Malaysia or Vietnam) needed a get out of jail free card.

Think about it- we whittled the field of teams to 40. 12 continued to the final Round of World Cup qualifying. 28 remained.

Why not just eliminate the worst four last place finishers?

Also, note how it was a MYSTERY as to what would happen to the teams eliminated in Round 1- this also strikes me as an insurance policy the AFC left on the table, just in case it needed to use it.

 

India was not among worst four last place finishers