Yeah Jordan underestimated Vietnam and got what they deserved. Never underestimate your opponent. Qatar entering our match with the same mistake. In Qatari channel Alkass Qataris predicted 3-0 win. I dont understand based on what they think they can hammer us ? North Korea is a weak team, Lebanon is a weak team, and Saudi Arabia proved to everyone they are weak. Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 5-1 last year so Qatar winning 2-0 is not a surprise at all. Today Iraq should win this. All we need is to keep our focus and not let their striker to slip thro our defenses. I just hope there wont be any funny bad calls from the referee.
Meh... I don't think anything's really changing that much. I'd be shocked if the semi-finals are anything other than the big four playing each other... who knows... maybe UAE will get another late soft penalty vs Australia and sneak through, but again they came 3rd last time so it's not really a surprise. Hasn't Central Asia been up and coming for some time now? Uzbekistan, it's the same old, same old... promising start, can't break past the big 4 team, Turkmenistan had an even better tournament back in 2004 when only 16 teams qualified and still lost all three of their games. Kyrgyzstan in my opinion have been the cinderella story so far, seemingly no hopers but have gone toe-to-toe with everyone they've played... who knows how they could have done had it not been for goalkeeping and defensive errors. As far as Vietnam is concerned, they are yet to beat anyone of any note. An impressive display against Jordan, but we'll see what happens vs Japan. Qatar have been the most impressive Khaleeji team in this tournament and are improving. As of now, there are still 4 Gulf teams left, but one of Iraq vs Qatar will go out, Bahrain will most likely go out, and UAE seem to have regressed since last Australia 2015 despite making the quarters. Levant football, other than Iraq, have never really been a powerhouse in Asian football to be honest. I agree about North Korea though. Geeze, when it comes to the 10 year how have you aged challenge, North Korea take the cake. North Korea 2009 North Korea 2019
I'm joining only now the discussion. Took a longer break after the World Cup. So far my predictions doing very good in this tournament. I predicted 14/16 teams correctly in the Round of 16. For this Round I'm so far 6/6. Yeah, I had Vietnam over Jordan. The rest of the pickes were simply favourites. Whoever pays attention to Asian Football should have noticed Vietnam's rise. It doesn't come by chance. They enjoyed some success in regional as well as in Asian competitions over the last 12 months. They won the AFF Suzuki Cup (South-East Asian Championship). Their U23 team finished runners-up in the 2018 U23 Asian Championship. Also, they reached the quarterfinals of the Asian Games 2018 in Indonesia with the same squad. The responsible headcoach in all those tournaments was the Korean Park-Hang-Seo. He is the man behind their success. Vietnam has the youngest team in this competition. He had all these U23 players under his guidance and took them to the A National Team. It's really benefical if a coach can work together with the younger players before they eventually join the senior National Team. He adopted a quick short-passing style and relies mainly on counter attacks. The team is certainly physically a bit weak but they found a way to compensate that against Jordan. All in all it's a good sign for the South Eastern region that Vietnam and Thailand had very decent showings in this tournament. Vietnam has a chance if Japan continues to play in energy save mode. But ultimately I think their road will end there.
Most Asian football fans are a bit weird, in my opinion. Everyone seems to live in their own bubble and does not really care to pay attention to Asian football as a whole.
I'm looking forward to the Qatar - Iraq clash. It's for me THE clash of this round. Qatar has been very convincing so far. I like their new approach. You can see the handwriting of the new Spanish coach Felix Sanchez. Iraq on ther hand is always a gritty side and tough to play against. This clash can go either way. Qatar has the better individual players though. Iraq came here with a very young team. Qatar as the WC hosts in 2022 is under more pressure to deliver. I think in order to call this tournament a success they need to overcome Iraq. My prediction is that Qatar will edge it in extra time. South Korea will beat Bahrain in regular time.
To be honest, I think this is probably the hardest game to call out of the round of 16 to call. Could go either way, Iraq beat Qatar in the Gulf Cup 2 years ago, but Qatar won in Basra last year so it's hard to call. And Almoez Ali is looking like the best Qatar player since Jimi Hendrix...
And the one who scored against Iraq is Bassam Al-Rawi is actually Iraqi born. His father played for Iraq. His father offered his son (Bassam) to our Olympic team coach but our Olympic team coach rejected him.
How do iraqis treat him now? A traitor or talented Iraqi descend player? All big4 made it to quarter finals. So far we have seen no major upset yet.
Personally I don’t blame him for his choice to represent Qatar. If there is one to blame is Abdulghani Shahad our Olympic team coach for rejecting him.
Jordan beating Australia was probably, but it's all for naught as the Aussies are through, while Jordan go home. And it actually might have worked in Australia's favor, as they now go into the easier bracket instead of Iran, Japan, and Australia all in one bracket like it would have been had they won that first game. It could very well be an all big-4 semifinal set up...
Today match highlights. Iraq-Qatar. Iraqis committed suicide by pushing hard against Iran in group stage. They lost stamina while Iran saved the energy for knock out round. A lesson to be learned here. Bashar Resan was not bad in this match. South Korea - Bahrain. South Koreans are fast but have hard time against defensive teams.
It isnt excuse Iran match was 6 days ago. Just read what Katanec said in the press conference prior to the match. He said some Iraqi players weren’t taking training sessions seriously and they were making fun and enjoy themselves. Stop shoving Iran down our throats. You should focus on China and Japan and leave us alone. Smh
We have left you alone since the match day if you have noticed. It is usually the other way around. I just gave my one line opinion about Iraq-Qatar match in AFC competition forum and I get a lashing? Tolerance is the word coming to my mind. The reason I said you killed the hope in Iran-Iraq match was because of my own experience playing football. We have gelicoxen stored in our liver as a source of gelocoz over the time, so when you start burning so much energy or going without food for more than a day, this source of energy keeps our body running. When you use this source of energy, it takes more than a week to replace it, specially when you want to go that extra mile in a hard knock out match. That is all.
https://arabic.rt.com/sport/996011-...لتواصل-قبل-مواجهة-أسود-الرافدين-والعنابي/amp/ https://baghdadtoday.news/ar/news/72410/لاعب-قطر-العراقي-بسام-ال http://www.akherkhabaronline.com/ar...يغضب-العراقيين-بسبب-احتفاله-بالهدف-فيديو.html https://www.nasnews.com/بهدف-العراقي-بسّام-الراوي-منتخبنا-الو/ He is the son of Hesham Ali Al-Rawi. He played for Al-Talaba and Al-Zawraa View attachment 146942 View attachment 146941
Could you please scroll up and read my replay to you. I dont want to waste my time repeating the same thing again. Thank you.
Iran knocks iraq out. we went for a nonloss and got a nonloss. in the process, iraq got tired playing us and fell in the path of qatar, who would inevitably knock them out. had iraq beaten us, they would have played oman and would have had a good chance to beat them, they would probably have beaten china to and made it to the semis, but all thanks to Iran they are now knocked out. it would have made no sense for Iran to push 100% for a win when a draw would do for us. bye bye iraq. you got lucky in 2015 but you cant get lucky every time. Iran is rightfully above iraq in the asian cup now. my grudge against iraq is now over. i even have a compliment, based on all the matches so far, it seems like iraq was a stronger team than saudi in this tournament. saudi could do everything except defend. and score when it mattered. the goals they gave up to qatar and japan proved that they were not a top 4/5 asian team in this tournament. both qatar and iraq are better teams overall than saudi at the moment. Iran/south korea/japan are the best teams in this tournament so far, with australia/qatar following closely. although i expect australia to rise above qatar and be on the level of the big 4 again starting next round. after that it is iraq. also shout out to kyrgyztan they definitely were the surprise team. vietnam did good so far but i feel that they have been somewhat overrated.