2019 Asian Cup - Knockout Rounds II[R]

According to Japanese media, regular midfield starter Endo is out due to thigh injury occurred in semifinal game. Right-back starter Sakai will be OK.

No idea about Qatar.
But I expect Japan squad for Copa will be B team includes some U22 players.
Most of European clubs won't allow to send their players to non-AFC competitions.
So from Asian Cup team, Osako, Muto, Haraguchi, Minamino, Doan, Inui, Shibasaki, Endo, Yoshida, Tomiyasu, Nagatomo and Sakai are almost zero percent.
(Perhaps Kagawa, useless player for current Dortmund may be possible.lol.)

And Japan coach Moriyasu is also serving as Plympic coach. It is reasonable to use some U22 players for a preparation of next year's Tokyo games.

I want to see Copa with full squad off course. But extremely slim possibility.

 

I can't believe you guys are STILL talking about Iran. Iran are out.

Haven't seen one person give their opinion on the final and what the outcome will be.

 

I see Japan won 2-1 in overtime or else Japan wins 1-0 against the qatar

 

I'm not a huge fan of him as a journalist but Scott McIntyre's reporting on the Qatar NT's players eligibility is extremely interesting. I hope UAE put in a complaint against their completely illegal team.

 

I think Qatar may win this. It has been their tournament so far, they have a lot of momentum and have not given up a goal.

Qatar 2 Japan 1 AET

 

Roflmao.

Seriously though, I want Qatar to beat Japan in the final. To make CQ look even more of an ass than he's already been proven to be. Also, Xavi should quit football and follow in the footsteps of Nostradamus.

 

That's a dead horse too. Qatar has been doing this for years and I don't take any issues with it anymore. It's a teeny tiny little Persian Gulf nation and its only real source of income is its natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that is shared 50/50 with Iran. While Iran has been incompetent and not even developing it. Qatar has been raking in the dough for the past 30 years. Good for them.

 

Iran is never out. You're out. We're the champions. Irrespective of silly western inventions such as scorelines and facts. It's all fakenews! Okay? TM has a divine mandate to win it all. It is known. We're legion. And our fans won't stop til it happens.

 

Well I've got to say, the Asian Cup has really caused quite a commotion here in Qatar. Haven't seen the people this excited about their team since I moved here some 10 years ago. They showed the game against UAE on big screens all across Doha. Even my female students didn't show up to class to watch the game lol, they usually could care less. People celebrating all over the streets. Kind of reminds me of 2010 when Qatar got the World Cup awarded. Friday should be absolutely mental especially as it's a day off. I can't help get on the bandwagon a bit and have been wearing my Qatar jersey this week to work lol.... I kind of want to go watch it on a big screen somewhere but kind of worried what traffic might be like ... I guess it's particular sweet as they've beaten both of their biggest rivals, the blockading countries of Saudi and UAE... it's a major up-yours for them.

Anyway, I'm also under the impression that Qatar might win this thing outright, but Japan are a different proposition.. Qatar haven't beaten Japan since the 1980s and there's virtually no correlation between Japan pre-1992 and Japan post-1992.. they made the round of 16 of the World Cup, not the Asian Cup so it's a different class altogether.. it's literally division 1 vs division 2 but stranger things have happened...

Yalla Anabi!

 

Delusion level over 9000
I Salute you for your dedication.

 

Erm. I think he's being sarcastic

 

just lol at all the noobs who are clueless about football saying qatar will outplay japan and win. i mean there is always a slim chance of them technically advancing over japan via the official result as there is not a huge gap between these teams and anything can happen in football, but if you think qatar will play better than Iran did against japan (until the VAR referee ruined the match), then you are simply delusional. we will see. qatar has been overhyped. all the noobs will see it. if even Iran had difficulty opening japan up, do you think qatar can? mark my words. just lol at people who think scoring 4-6 goals against weak teams that play to your advantage has any correlation to going up against a totally different team in a totally different game. there is a reason some strikers score 20 goals in one league then they move to another league and cant even reach 2 goals. too many amateur armchair analysts here who look at results too literally.

qatar scraped by iraq, beat a saudi team that gifted them 2 goals and couldnt carve open any team with a decent defense, scraped by a toothless korea side who was only korea in name, and pounced on a shitty UAE team who was not even top 10 in the tournament, after an early goal caused them to come out and get exposed. now, i am not saying they didnt play well enough, nobody can expect them or any other team to do better than they have, but it doesnt mean that it has a relationship to their chances against the first team that is on a much higher level than all of their previous opponents. nobody said Iran would beat japan due to beating china 3-0. yet somehow if qatar does it that is sufficient to make them better than japan. what is more hilarious is that the same people who were crapping on japan for scraping by in the early stages of the tournament immediately said "japan are kings of asia" after the referee+gift goal by Iran gave them the match, prior to which they managed to create a total of 0 good chances against Iran. lmao.

qatars ride will likely end against japan. i really wish we played them in the semis and got japan in the final. Iran vs qatar would have been an interesting close match, and i am sure that either we would have come on top by a goal, or it would have went to penalties. there is no way qatar would beat us without penalties. we just will never be able to prove it though, they wont even participate in world cup qualifying.

 

i dont understand what is funny? i simply described a factual scenario that unfolded. if you dont believe me watch the tape. which part of my post was a lie?

 

we will see who needs that vehicle after australia is drawn into Irans group for WCQ2022. you nearly did not make it in WC2018. you were lucky to avoid us 2 editions in a row, and instead south korea, who was better than you, felt our wrath. you also won the AC2015 because your countryman abused his power to knock us out. there will be 4.5 spots. that means 1 team will go to playoffs. it is either you or saudi. 1997 will happen again mate. then we will see who needs the whambulance. our next coach will play offensive football. imagine taremi on the left, azmoun in the middle, jahanbakhsh on the right, with ghoddos behind azmoun. we will tear any asian team a new one. jahanbakhsh will come to life, he was top scorer of dutch league when he was allowed to play in an offensive position. ghoddos is an attacking midfielder who loves to have a try at goal. azmoun, no words need to be said. taremi might not be the best finisher but his pairing with azmoun is deadly. then there will be 2 defensive midfielders, and we have young promising defenders who will hopefully retain the defensive discipline that CQ instilled in the team. now i am getting more optimistic for the future. we will not show any asian team respect, we will attack. just like we did in the mid 90s to mid 2000s. we are coming for asia. mark my words. better yet, print this post and frame it on your wall and glance up at it in 3 years or so. if i am not right i will change my username to princessfootball and retire from this site. if you lose, you change your "favourite team" to "Iran's bitch (australia)" for a year. how about it mate? ready to put your money where your mouth is and accept the bet?

 

Ok Iran aside, as they're eliminated from the Asian Cup lets focus on the final. Japan vs. Qatar.

Should be a good game. I'm interested in the politics surrounding the legitimacy of the Qatar team. If it's not brought up now, it will certainly be brought up prior to the FIFA World Cup that Qatar host, and literally the entire planet will be watching in 2022.

I think Endo getting injured was literally the worst thing for Qatar as it means Shiotani will start who I argue is probably best suited to this game not Endo based on the opponent.

 

how do you think the game will unfold? i know Iran are eliminated but do you think until the 55th minute qatar will threaten japan more than Iran? do you also think japan will fail to create a single good chance against qatar until the 55th minute?

 

as a supporter of Japan, in my opinion the biggest threat from Japan was Iran after the qatar can beat us very well, because this cup has surprises in store for us

 

Nah to analyse Qatar-Japan against the Iran game would be unfair to Iran NT and the Iran NT are irrelevant to analysis for the final because Iran have been eliminated.

I think Qatar's success will depend on their Central Midfield. They've scored a lot of goals on the back of quite fast attacks and transitions from defence to offence and winning the ball in advanced positions. Japan are less likely to let that be an issue than the prior teams I think. Having said that Uzbekistan got a goal on Japan in a counter. Japan will look to play the game in the middle of the park and not in transition.

If Qatar can win the CM battle they may well take the championship.

 

as you said, from what i have seen it seems like qatar is good at defense to offense transitions, and in general against weak defenses. japan will not allow them either. japan will control the midfield. qatar can only hope to score on the counter. i dont see qatar being able to control the game or create decent chances. and that is exactly why they have been overrated. all of their opponents played to their strengths so far except iraq, which they struggled against. yet japan is stronger than iraq.

 

I think most teams have underestimated Qatar this tournament. UAE sat very deep against Australia, and pulled off a win. Then against Qatar they allowed them space in the heart of their defense (the striker for Qatar is way more dangerous than anyone Australia has). To me UAE overestimated how strong they were in comparison to Qatar, and paid the price.

The question is will Japan?? Japan conceded something like 70% of the possession to Sauid Arabia, which was mainly after they went ahead. This to me suggests Japan are happy to sit deep if they need too (they have an ability to flood forward quickly on the counter with numbers too). They played similarly against Australia in Australia during the qualifiers (and got a draw in a game where they looked like they hardly tried).

Japan probably have one of the most disciplined defences in Asia (except for that game against Belgium), so I think the game could drag if Japan score early. The best game for a neutral would be for Qatar to score early and force Japan to attack (this would open the game up to suit Qatar's counter attack, and Japan's superiority play on the ball).

I think Qatar has over achieved already this Cup, and although it would be good to see someone else lift the cup I think Japan will edge them due to the "been there done that" experience, and the ability to win games in tournaments. Qatar has to played their best game to win, Japan just need to do enough to win.

 

they did not do that randomly. they knew that these teams, especially saudi, played possession style football but could not create many chances, and their defense was weak and could be exposed on the counter. this saudi is like spain of WC2014, pass pass pass but cant create any chances+a really leaky defense. it was a logical decision by japan to make this kind of game plan, especially after going up 1-0. but against Iran, japan knew they could not do this, because Iran would eventually score if they were given the ball, so instead japan tries to keep possession and slowly build their own attacks, and also pressed Iran every time they had the ball to cause a turnover and gain possession again.

 

Looks like the AFC have confirmed that UAE have launched a protest against the eligibility of Almoez Ali and Bassam Al-Rawi. Could be a very interesting day coming up.

 

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Documents are provided which prove that the parents of both players weren't born in Qatar. This means that Qatar forged the birth certificates!!

They don't deserve to be in the finals, let's be honest here.

 

Do you think they will award the semi win to UAE or just prevent Al Rawa and Ali from playing in the final.

 

I believe nothing will happen Qatar can delay and rise an appeal to CAS court and will take several months to hear all sides. It happened to Iraq vs Qatar in 2010 WC qualifications and Iraq filed a complain against Qatar for using illegible Brazilian player “Emerson” it took almost a year to review and summit all sides and CAS only punished the player.