This tournament doubles as the qualification for the 2020 Olympic football. The top three finishers will qualify for the Olympics, however if Japan reaches the semi-finals, then the other three semi-finalists will be guaranteed qualification. Group A Thailand, Iraq, Australia, Bahrain Group B Qatar, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Syria Group C Uzbekistan, South Korea, China, Iran Group D Vietnam, North Korea, Jordan, UAE
Japan couldn't call up 12 European based players. The biggest absences are Tomiyasu (starter in Serie A), Kubo (starter in La Liga) and Doan (starter for PSV).
Interesting to see Syria have 20 of their 23 players born in January, and 8 of those born on January 1st.
Not just Syria, but when I was at uni there were a lot of students who came from the more rural areas of Yemen and Iraq, and they had all stated January 1st to be their birthday. None of them knew their exact date of birth on the Gregorian calendar, so they just stated the year they were born, and wrote down January 1st as a convenience. Age fraud, even unintentional cases, is still a major issue in Asia and it's going to be a while until this is ever resolved. It could be the reason why certain teams are so dominant at junior competitions, but mysteriously fade away at senior level.
I had a project once teaching at a gas plant in Abu Dhabi to some of the workers, many of whom were from the Levant & north / north east Africa... many of the trainees had Jan 01 down as their birth-dates. When I asked about that I was told that that was the case, many of them didn't know their actual birthdate.
Interesting that most of those areas where part of the Ottoman empire. My grandparents were born in Eastern Europe in part of the Ottoman empire and birth dates there were only ever approximate and sometimes not registered at all. Most birth registrations were done in the local church and sometimes birth dates were recorded, sometimes christening dates were recorded and sometimes the date was just recorded as a particular saint's feast day. As the Julian calendar was in use at the time conversions to the Gregorian Calendar were sometimes done, and sometimes not. I think similar issues affected those of muslim faith, and it still seems to to this day.
Quarter-finals Australia - Syria South Korea - Jordan Saudi Arabia - Thailand UAE - Uzbekistan Thailand has played attractive football.
South Korea 2 Jordan 1 Uzbekistan 5 UAE 1 Semi Finals Saudi Arabi1 v Uzbekistan Australia v South Korea
Saudi Arabia 1 Uzbekistan 0 Australia 0 South Korea 2 The Koreans and Saudis meet in the final on Sunday and Australia and Korea meet in the 3rd place play off on saturday. The playoff means more than it usually does as the winner qualifies for the Olympics, and the other team gets to contemplate what might have been.
Yep - gotta say I'm not surprised to see South Korea in the final. They've probably been the most competent and consistent team in the tournament. It's been a very even tournament so far. First stage saw 11 draws and only 13 wins, only 3 of which were by more than one goal, and only one game, Thailand 5-0 Bahrain more than 2... Australia vs Uzbekistan will be huge as it's for the Olympics. Think Korea will be slight favorites for the final but we'll see.
dirty oil money, dirty weapon money, dirty human trade money, we all are same us. but here in the football world, we are together beyond everything ...