Official Asian Cup 2015 Thread

Remember when we had to go through these?

 

How did North Korea gain automatic qualification??

 

They didn't. They won the AFC Challenge Cup again to qualify.

 

Money talks!

 

Iraq were reduced to ten men, and then one of their players went out of the pitch after picking an injury with his team finishing all of their substitutions, So China played against a 9-men team in the last 10 minutes or so of the match, and only scored in the stoppage time!

 

UAE have a great generation of players, which won the AFC U-20 and progressed to FIFA U-20 twice, reaching the QF of the 2009 edition, and they also qualified to London Olympics after topping a group containg Australia, Iraq and Uzbekistan.
One of this generation players is Omar Abulrahman, who is nick-named the Arab's Messi, who has Manchester City and other European clubs interested in him after his performance in the Olympics, but his club turned down Man City's offer last summer.
They have also a player from London generation who was on-loan with French side Bordeaux.
This team also is the only Arab team with a local coach, Mehdi Ali, who coached this kids from U-17 to senior NT.
Not to mention that this team finished second in the last Asian Games where they lost to Japan in the final, defeating S.Korea in the process, and they won the Gulf Nations cup earlier this year winning all of their matches in the process.

Here are some videos of Omar Adulrahman:

1- His magical goal against Irag in the Gulf Cup final:



2- His touches against Uruguay in London Olympics:



3- His magical assist against Bahrain in Gulf Cup:



By the way, there are already many guys from Europe posting videos of him in Youtube.

So not all of the Arab teams are petrodollars teams with no quality, stop this stereotype.

 

I watched this guy live once and he was like Ronaldinho with left foot and afro, quality player.

 

The UAE have won the last gulf cup. It isn't a big tournament, but I'm not surprised by the Uzbek loss, and the match was played in UAE. Anyway, Uzbekistan can take 6 points from the two matches against Vietnam. The UAE is a young team with olympic experience and seems that this team is very talented, and at this time its lack of experience doesn't seems a problem.
The problem is that almost none of the best players of the arabic peninsula countries play in Europe. Why? The petrodollars? Playing in Europe could really improve the football skills of an asian player.

In first half of the China vs Iraq match the chinese ball possession was 52% and their shoots were 8 (but I don't know how of these shoots was on target) vs 3 iraqi shoots and the chinese corner kicks were 4 vs the single iraqi corner kick. But if Iraq has played the second half in 11 men, the probability of a chinese victory would has been slower.



P.S.: hello everywhere! I'm a symphatyser of the chinese, north korean, south korean, vietnamese, australian, kuwaiti, iraqi and saudi national teams, especially the chinese (People's Rep). Not the Japan because it has won just 4 of the last 6 AC ahaha!

 

Iraq has to beat them, and Lebanon has to beat Thailand with a huge goal margin (5 or 6 goals). Unlikely scenario unfortunately I don't like China either

 

As far as Japan is concerned the Asian Cup will be a great opportunity to build the core squad for 2018. Central midfield will be a major battle.

 

I just want to see our youth talents performance in this competition. Azmoun, Jahanbakhsh, Karimi, Ansarifard, and the rest of them. Our next generation is awesome. It is going to be another 1996-2004 generation again. The only thing we are lacking is another Abedzadeh which I hope Davari can fill that gap. I don't like Rahmati and his cheap time wasting tactic. Iranian team should not bring itself down to that level. We should dominate the game like we used to back in the days. I hope Saudi Arabia and Oman can show some decent traditional Middle Eastern performance and give Eastern Asian teams some serious headaches. This time is West Asia turn to take the Asian Cup home.

 

Who are you expecting to win the Asian Cup? Japan and Australia are the biggest contenders. I can't see a Western Asia nation win.

But let's hope for an upset like Iraq did in 2007

 

well from my point of view, thai is very good in their home soil. syria is in very big situation and must defeated jordan, iraq will have a tough game with china . but i think iraq will make it through

 

You are right. Hopefully, guys like Takahiro Ogihara, Gaku Shibasaki and Wataru Endo can be given a try.

South Korea is pretty strong too. They are stronger than Australia imo.

 

I hope we meet South Korea in knock out stage and take them down soundly this time. South Korea have good players but they have trouble scoring. I hope they fix that by 2015. West Asian teams specially Arabs are traditionally good defensive teams and they can win if they score on counter attacks. I hope Uzbekistan come back to their good shape as well. They shocked South Korea very well. One more goal and SK could have not qualifued for Brazil. I still think they can cause serious trouble for East Asian teams. They even drew with SK and beat Japan in qualifying stages.

I wish UAE be as one of the members said earlier with that talented abdurahman guy. Do as much as you can to bring glory to West Asia again. Its been almost a decade that West Asian teams are playing in a lower level compare to the East. This should end very soon. I respect Japanese team though. They are playing really good, but it is time for another Asian team to claim the thorn this time, and please don't let Australian take it from us.