The 2019 Asian competition is approaching fast. Who do you think are the serious contenders and who are the wild cards? Which teams have more chances to advance from group stage and go beyound? Elaborate a little more if you like to.
My Prediction: Group A: 1. UAE 2. Bahrain Group B: 1. Syria 2. Australia Group C: 1. S.Kor 2. China Group D: 1. Iran 2. Vietnam Group E: 1. KSA 2. Qatar Group F: 1. Japan 2. Uzbek Third teams: Oman, Iraq, Jordan, Thailand R16: UAE vs Iraq => most likely UAE Syria vs Thailand => Syria S.Kor vs Jordan => S.Kor Iran vs Oman => Iran KSA vs Vietnam => most likely KSA Japan vs Qatar => Japan Bahrain vs China => China Australia vs Uzbek > Australia Quarter Finals: China vs Iran => Iran Syria vs Japan => Japan S.Kor vs KSA => most likely S. Kor Australia vs UAE => hard to say Australia Semi Finals: Iran vs Japan => Japan S.Kor vs Australia => Australia 3rd place: Iran vs S.Kor => Iran Final: Japan vs Australia => Japan 1. Japan 2. Australia 3. Iran 4. Korea
The brackets are set up in a way to send Australia, Japan and Iran on one side and KSA, UAE and S.Korea in other side assuming all becoming their group winners. It is obvious the bracket is off balanced. One of the teams from Japan, Iran or Australia should go to the next round as secound team of the group to balance the brackets. If KSA or S.Kor advances as the second team of the group the brackets become even more off balanced. It would have Japan, Iran, Australia, S.Kor/KSA in one side and the rest in the other side. This is a pretty sad situation.
UAE Bahrain Thailand India Australia Syria Jordan Palestine South Korea China Kyrgyzstan Philippines Iran Iraq Vietnam Yemen Saudi Arabia Qatar Lebanon North Korea Japan Uzbekistan Oman Turkmenistan Bahrain China Iran Oman Australia Thailand Japan Qatar South Korea Jordan Saudi Arabia Iraq UAE Kyrgyzstan Syria Uzbekistan China Iran Australia Japan South Korea Saudi Arabi UAE Uzbekistan Iran Japan South Korea UAE Iran South Korea
Optimistic prediction. I am not sure we can pass Japan with this many injured players who missed the final cut.
Iran enters the Asian Cup with a weaker squad than the WC. Most of their European based players have struggled. Even their best performer Swedish-born Ghoddos lost his starting spot at club. Australia lost their best player Mooy and wonderkid Arzani. Japan sent a young squad to give them experience. Guys like Nakajima and Doan are very talented but they might suffer from their lack of international experience. Imo South Korea has the best chance to win it this time. They have a talented and well experienced squad. Most importantly they finally got a decent manager. I wouldn't write off Saudi Arabia's chance. They had 2 good games in the WC. My dark horse is Qatar.
Saman Ghoddos was born in Sweden but he is fully Iranian and speaks Persian (Farsi) well. His parents immigrated from Iran to Sweden after the birth of his only sibling (His older brother). He is the only one in their family who was not born in Iran. Again Saman Ghoddos is fully Iranian.
As I mentioned Saman Ghoddos was born in Sweden from fully Iranian parent and he is fully Iranian. The following link is the video of his last interview in Persian (Farsi) language: https://90tv.ir/videos/اختصاصی-مصاحبه-سامان-قدوس-با-دوربین-نود-نود-28-آبان
Don't bother with that troll. He is not even brave enough to admit he is not from Singapore. He is most likely Iraqi or Korean. He tries so hard to seek Iranian attention with his controversial posts here. Saman Ghodoos is a fix player for his club and in fact their engine. Their manager said he need Saman to stay and help the team, but he should accept FIFA rules.
He is not definitely from Singapore. I think he is from Mongolia. Anyway I do not care where he is from.
It will be such a shame if Iran don't win this Asian Cup. We are really good and the rest of the powerhouses (Australia, Japan and Korea) are playing crap. They will be our punching bags. I would say our toughest opponent is the 0-8ers but still we can beat them with ease. It seems that the gap between us and the rest of Asia is getting bigger.
Japan will win this Asian Cup. Not sure though who else will get to the Final. Once the brackets are certain I will predict the whole knockout stage.
Just my two cents. First, congratulations Qatar. Those who say Qatar is a club team need to chill out. Most of their players were trained in the Aspire academy. Well deserved. I think they have a realistic chance to reach the knockout stage at the next World Cup. Good luck. Having said that, most of the traditional powerhouses were far from their 100% this time. Someone said South Korea and Australia declined on another thread. I don't think so. South Korea missed two key players. Nam Tae-hee who started in all six post-WC friendlies and Kwon Chang-hoon who scored 11 goals in Ligue 1 last season. Australia is a completely different animal with well-proven EPL player Mooy on the pitch. His absence was a big hole for Australia. Japan sent a young team and suffered from many injuries. Especially they had to play without their best attacker Nakajima who became the most expensive Asian player ever (35 million euros) last month by making a stupid move. It's like they were attacking with one leg. Plus they entered the Asian Cup without a single friendly, which affected their fitness. As I expected, Iran was disappointing. Iran had many advantages this time. 1) No managerial change. Other giants barring KSA changed their managers after the WC. 2) Less injuries compared to other powerhouses. 3) Easy opponents in the Ro16 & QF. 4) Geographical advantage. Everything was in favor of Iran yet they failed unfortunately. Here is the up-to-date version of "Last glory by competition". I added new Asian powerouse Qatar to the list. Code: WC Ro16 Asian Cup final ACL title Australia 2006 2015 2014 Iran None 1976 1993 Japan 2018 2019 2018 Korea 2010 2015 2016 Qatar None 2019 2011 Saudi Arabia 1994 2007 2005 Iran is the worst in every competition unfortunately.
The real tough time for Iran will begin from now on. Now that Carlos Queiroz has gone, their future looks bleak. It's widely known that Iran's talent level has stagnated since guys like Daei, Mahdavikia, Karimi, Hashemian, Nekounam etc retired and they can't stop the downfall yet. Their latest starlet Jahanbakhsh has been a huge flop in England. On paper, Iran is very average even in Asia. They will struggle without Queiroz.
LOL. 2) Less injuries compared to other powerhouses. Iran missed 3 main players. Ezatolahi - He played a decisive role for Iran in the World Cup. Gholizadeh - He would have been a great joker. Rezaei - He played the Champions League this season. 3) Easy opponents in the Ro16 & QF. Don't underrate Oman. They were the only team that took the lead against Iran in the 2018 WCQ. (I don't count the Syria game at Azadi because we fielded B-team in the match.) China finished the WCQ with 3 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss after Lippi took over the job. They weren't weak at all. 4) Geographical advantage. Playing the Asian Cup on Arab soil is an advantage to Iran? Just look at the latest FIFA rankings. Who owns Asia? Seriously, other Asian fans should thank for our brainless Islamic government that has disclosed our potential for more than 40 years. The likes of Arabs, Japan, Korea, China and Australia invest tons of money in football yet they can't stop Iran's domination in Asia.
Are you serious? Luck was against us in the WC. Iran-Morocco It was a pretty even match. Iran-Portugal Portugal got a BS penalty. Iran-Spain Ezatolahi's equalizer was wrongly ruled out for offside.
This was the best news right after the Asian Cup 2019. Also can you name only one team that CQ was very successful with it as a head coach at least 10 years before he came to Iran?