Host: Qatar Group A: Qatar, Syria, Iran, China Group B: Saudi Arabia, Japan, North Korea, Thailand Group C: Iraq, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Yemen Group D: Jordan, Australia, UAE, Vietnam Finals played between 12 - 30 January 2016 Top 3 qualifies for 2016 Summer Olympics This is the cleaner, I wont derail the topic or else I understand I can get banned version. Watch yourself. Tex.
The final is going to be tough but I would predict Korea to win that game. As for the 3rd place match, I really hope Iraq wins it but playing against home grown players is one thing and playing against mercenaries is another thing! In the end congrats to all the qualified teams and I do hope they would make us proud in the Olympics!
Not so good. I recall we lost 1-0 in the 2006 Asian Games final and 2-0 and 1-0 losses in the 2010 WCQ. I don't have a good feeling about this, but hopefully we will overcome Qatar.
Qatar can thank iran's coach ridiculous tactics against them for being in this position. Iraq is probably better than them but afc will do anything in their power to get Qatar to the olympics.
Like the afc referee did in awarding Iran a dive penalty against them and not giving a clear penalty to Qatar? That certainly didn't help their cause. Post edited by Tex.
I don't know bro. This Qatar team won the 2014 AFC U19 Championship, and they are still unbeaten in this tournament. It will be one heck of an exciting match for sure..
What I really don't understand is whenever an Iranian team loses, it's always a conspiracy thing. Excuses after excuses. They would never admit that their team truly suck *****. What an arrogant bunch indeed (except for few).
What are you talking about? If you think that was a dive then your judgements are very suspect. I haven't seen anything that great from Qatar for them to be in an Olympic qualifying position. Also if you think afc doesn't want anything more than Qatar in the Olympics then you're just delusional.
Who said there was a conspiracy? They lost because of the coaches tactics. You can call that excuses or you can also just watch the highlights or the game before talking out of your ass. Anyways it's over now so who cares. I was just saying that afc will obviously try to get Qatar in the Olympics since Iraq would give them no monetary compensation.
congratulation to korea the only team in the world to reach all the olympics tournament since it was changed to u23
The whole reason to change the Olympic qualification format to knock out stage was to give teams like UAE or Qatar an easier route to qualify.. That's obvious. The only reason Qatar hosted this tournament was to reach Rio. They did not even participate in the previous edition. Says enough..
I will be cheering for Korea in their match versus Japan. I hate defensive football. Iraq you better smash Qataris or you lose credit.
Even Iranians called it out, the Iranian forward put his leg between the defender's still legs, but whatever. If that was the case with afc, then they are doing an extremely poor job. Evidence points to the contrary: group of death for Qatar, bad refereeing decisions against Qatar and no hints of referee bias. Is this where you say we should've paid them more?
No one mentioned conspiracy, keep the hatred for yourself. Main reason for this failure was the coach's complete inexperience, if you think the team sucks remember the players names when your team is going to play against Iran's senior team in a few years, because you will notice how wrong you are
Iraq was unbeaten until the 90th min vs Japan edit - as a neutral, I want to see Qatar's #10 in the Olympics but good luck to both teams.
For me both Qatar and Iraq showed good performance in this AFC U23 tournament to deserve that 3rd ticket to the Olympics. What I would like is for the team that is most likely to perform well and do Asia proud on the world stage that is the Olympics in Rio, to get that 3rd ticket. This Friday one of these two teams will get that ticket hopefully fair and square, but there still are two big variables: 1) Which team has the metal toughness to performs on the world stage 2) Which team has got the better wildcard options that could upgrade their squad significantly Who has got the better wildcards available to them?
Another question that preys on my mind is if this edition was still the home-and-away Olympic qualifiers rather than the new tournament qualifiers, could teams like Iran & Australia gotten that 3rd ticket instead? Both Iran & Australia are strong at home. They both have the talent, and if the problem lies with poor management, player selection, formation or tactics the home and away format gives the them the opportunity to adjust & change them between matches. In actual fact the home-and-away format will allow the teams to prepare better for the Olympics, which at the end of the day is the prize.
It doesn't matter to Iran whether AFC use the current format or previous one. We haven't qualified for the finals since 1976. The current format might favor us considering we failed to advance to the final qualification round in 2008 and 2012.