I know it is a bit late to open up this thread. But let's discuss about their performance, tactics, and so forth and cheer all the AFC participants here. -All Times are Local Australia (Drawn into Group B) vs. Chile (6 PM, June 13; Arena Pantanal; Cuiaba, Brazil) vs. Netherlands (1 PM, June 18; Estadio Beira-Rio; Porto Alegre, Brazil) vs. Spain (1 PM, June 23; Arena de Baixada; Curitiba, Brazil) Japan (Drawn into Group C) vs. Ivory Coast (10 PM; June 14; Arena Pernambuco; Recife, Brazil) vs. Greece (7 PM; June 19; Estadio das Dunas; Natal, Brazil) vs. Colombia (4 PM; June 24; Arena Pantanal; Cuiaba, Brazil) Iran (Drawn into Group F) vs. Nigeria (4 PM; June 16; Arena de Baixada; Curitiba, Brazil) vs. Argentina (1 PM; June 21; Estadio Mineirao; Belo Horizonte, Brazil) vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina (1 PM; June 25; Arena Fonte Nova; Salvador, Brazil) Korea Republic (Drawn into Group H) vs. Russia (7 PM; June 17; Arena Pantanal; Cuiaba, Brazil) vs. Algeria (4 PM; June 22; Estadio Beira-Rio; Porto Alegre, Brazil) vs. Belgium (5 PM; June 26; Arena Corinthians; Sao Paulo, Brazil) Good luck
Round 1 Results: Australia 1-3 Chile Japan 1-2 Ivory Coast Iran 0-0 Nigeria Korea Republic 1-1 Russia
So far so good, two draws isn't bad for Asia. Maybe Australia can pull a miracle today, but all eyes are on Japan tomorrow. It's do or die for them.
Round 2 Results: Australia 2-3 Holland Japan 0-0 Greece Iran 0-1 Argentina Korea Republic 2-4 Algeria At end of Round 2 : 0 wins, 3 draws, and 5 losses. Subsequently, two more losses: Australia 0-3 Spain Japan 1-4 Colombia compared to 2010, when AFC got 4 wins. compared to 2006, when AFC got 1 win, and Australia got 1 win when still with OFC.
A very ordinary performance from Asia's representatives. All of us came last in our groups, and none of us ever looked likely to qualify for the second round.
Iran had the courage and were looking to qualify but the loss against Argertina hurt there confidence. Japan and SK disappointed big time.
but to be honest the asian teams did not have luck. australia had a hard group. japan did everything but score+keep the ball out of their goal which is how you win matches. Iran was scored on in the last second and robbed of a penalty. south korea was not really convincing though, if anything they got lucky against russia. but then you have teams like greece and algeria who played like crap and got lucky and somehow made it to the 2nd round, despite not performing better than AFC (although algeria did beat south korea, but you cant tell me they were better than australia/japan/Iran). i just think south korea was shellshocked in the 1st half of that game and was not expecting that.
watch japan play AMAZING in the asian cup now and deny Iran of the trophy lol. they will have a finishing rate of 95% as opposed to 5% in the world cup. and it wont be the level of the opposition... they will just finish their chances, and their defense will be amazing. just watch. of course in the group stages they will probably need like a 92nd min goal just to tie a weak asian country, but then they will come in the knockout stages and play better than holland against Iran and deny us the trophy. i can feel it.
Disappointing showing by all AFC sides... http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y...-quartet-s-world-cup-performance-2387766.html
I agree re: Greece but Algeria has played some very attractive and amazing football. They made Belgium work for a difficult win, destroyed South Korea and tied Russia. That's not bad at all! Yes, Algeria was better than Austraila/Japan/Iran in this World Cup.
Thats doubtful. We have to adapt to Asian football again which will be frustrating as there will be a lot of grass rolling and time wasting unlike at the World Cup.
They had 6 representatives (5 qualifiers + 1 host) in this WC out of only 10 teams in their Confederation. That's a lot. They should go back to 5 reps (or 4.5 spots where they generally win the half spot anyway) next qualifiers. They won't do so well in Russia without their home ground advantage.