Bahrain has taken one of the 4 best 3rd place slots at 4 points. Thailand ended up in 2nd place in Grp A also with 4 points but with a win over Bahrain. The 3rd and 4th places teams in Grp C, D, E and F all have 0 points while those in Grp B(Palestine and Syria) have 1 point each. With 3 more spots available, the final group match will determine who makes it through. Each of the 10 remaining eligible teams need a win to stand a chance with goal differential being just as important if teams are tied on points. http://www.espn.com/soccer/standings/_/league/afc.cup
Group B will be interesting tonight. Jordan is the group winner but even though there is a good chance that two of Australia, Syria and Palestine will go through, none of these three have a guaranteed spot as yet. My nation needs a draw and Syria and Palestine need wins to be sure.
I really hate the head-to-head tiebreaker as this inevitably leads to many meaningless results for certain teams on the last group day. Jordan have nothing to play for and may take their foot off the pedal tonight, leaving the door open for Palestine to get a win at the expense of another 3rd place team. Kind of silly if you ask me. Syria vs Australia should be a good game though - it's literally winner takes all...
Palestine, the 3rd placed team in Grp B only managed 2 points, so it is up to the teams in C, D, E and F to get a win to clinch the 3 remaining spots. Palestine still have a chance though if only 2 other 3rd placed teams get a win and they have better goal differential than the rest.
this is Irans cup to win. this time around, i dont see any of the top asian teams being better than us. right now the top 5 are Iran, australia, japan, south korea, saudi, with uzbekistan as a floating 6th, then qatar. if saudi beats qatar and korea beats china and uzbekistan beats japan, then we will not meet a top asian team until the final. and we dont lose finals. we might lose semifinals (on penalties) but we dont lose finals. but the tournament is in an arab country so they will do their utmost to prevent us from lifting the cup inside an arab country, especially during these times.
the saudi vs qatar game should be entertaining. both teams will want to avoid Iran in the next round so they will fight to the death. the current geopolitical climate will also add to the rivalry. i am actually surprised saudi is allowing their team to play them with their new young emotional foolish de facto king at the helm.
As all the other 3rd and 4th placed teams have zero points and play each other Palestine need two of those four matches to be draws. Goal difference isn't a factor for them.as none of the other teams in contention can finish with two points.
come on uzbekistan please for once dont choke. just dont lose against japan, and Iran will have the easiest path to the final that we had in decades. we finally deserve such a break after getting screwed tournament after tournament in the knock outs. although i must say, at this stage no game is a guaranteed win. our offense is good for asian standards but not dominant as it used to be, so we may have trouble breaking teams down if they put all men behind the ball. it could very well happen that we may get knocked out by a non top 5 team via penalties, but i prefer not to think of such a thing.
A draw between Oman and Turkmenistan would certainly make the Lebanon vs North Korea match a lot more interesting...
Oman just scored, 2-1 for a 3/-1/3g. That's goodbye Palestine, but still below Vietnam (3/-1/4g). PS: Lebanon would need to score three against North Korea to have a shot. Not happening.
good try turkmenistan, but it was not meant to be. now we have to play oman in the round of 16. although we are the clear favourites they can be a stubborn side. hopefully it does not go to penalties. and damn uzbekistan chokes like usual, going into the game needing only a draw, going up 1-0, then somehow managing to concede twice to lose 2-1 to japan, which means we will now meet japan in the seminals and since the tournament is in UAE all the calls will go against us and we will probably go to penalties in that game and get knocked out once again in the seminals due to horseshit AFC bribe money refs + penalties. but it depends. if saudi reaches final from other bracket they may allow Iran to reach final until using bribed refs because for saudi Iran or japan in the final would not matter. but if south korea or australia reach the final from that other bracket, then they will use the refs against Iran as soon as possible to prevent Iran from going to the final and having the chance to lift the trophy on arab soil during these tumultuous times.
At this point Lebanon and N. Korea seem to be out: Lebanon would need to win 3-0 to get the -1 GD, and N. Korea to win 9-0. Neither team has the scoring power for that. So, the quarters (assuming the Saudis beat Qatar): 1st: Thailand - China Iran - Oman Iran should beat China to go to semis. 2nd: Jordan - Vietnam Japan - Qatar Japan should beat Jordan to go to semis. 3rd: R. of Korea - Bahrain Saudi Arabia - Iraq The ROK vs. SA is going to be unpredictable. 4th: UAE - Kyrgyzstan Australia - Uzbekistan The Aussies should beat the hosts to make semis, but that game vs. the Uzbeks promises to be a hard fought one.
Lebanon is 3-1 up against North Korea should they get one more then what, drawing of lots between them and Vietnam? Edit: Ah, I see disciplinary points, so then who wins?
With the Saudis losing to Qatar, it'd be Japan meeting them next round and Qatar landing on ROK's bracket.
4-1 Lebanon, so now what? Ahh..... Vietnam goes through on yellow cards? Wow - I feel for them actually That's tough....
Jesus Christ Lebanon scored at 90+8. It's going to be based on yellow cards vs. Vietnam. I guess Vietnam goes though, they only got 5 yellows to Lebanon's 7.
Yeah I was watching the game, when they scored some players celebrated, others cried knowing it wasn't going to be enough.. oh well, tough luck....
just hours ago we had the chance for the easiest bracket to the final. but now we have the toughest path to the trophy. we have to beat the 2 other best asian teams, japan and australia, to win the whole thing. i hope we beat japan and then beat australia in the final though, that would be epic. im tired of playing south korea. an Iran australia match up is long overdue.
Iran has the easiest path to the semis though. Australia the hardest: first the Uzbeks, then the hosts. Also, soccer is often unpredictable. Who expected Qatar to beat the Saudis?
It's really hard to read too much into these results when both teams have already qualified for the next stage. Eliminating a team is another thing altogether... also, not really that surprising, Qatar have been playing well lately and are in form... let's see what happens in the knockout phase... again, anything other than the big 5 in the final / semis will be a shock
I see Japan go to the final. But it'll be tough. I'm undecided about a semi-final between Australia and South Korea.
I did this right before the tournament kicked off.... http://www.weglobalfootball.com/downloads/ I have Iran vs South Korea meeting in the final. Can you imagine Bigsoccer will explode if that happens! Iran vs Japan semifinal showdown is still on schedule. Think that will be a penalty shootout. However, Australia finishing runner up in their group has actually made the tournament a little more interesting as it makes that bottom section a little more balanced. I think South Korea despite not looking that good for years could actually win this thing as the teams in the other side of the knockout round will be so bruised and battered when they make the final. I still think Iran are my favorites to win, but in these games there's so little to choose from between the top 4 teams. My initial group stage predictions. I got groups D, A + F right! Although how group a wound up how it did was unexpected. I also got Qatar finishing above Saudi Arabia right too. North Korea are probably the flops of the tournament, and Philippines losing out to Kyrgyzstan I didn't predict.