The Chinese Referee won the game. 3 penalties. Very weak ones. The third is an offside. They cheated with Iran too.
Congratulations to Qatar. What a strange Asian Cup this one has been. But everything just fell Qatar’s way. It’s the way tournaments sometimes go. Trying to compile my thoughts on it, but after all of us sharing so many thoughts with each other over these past few weeks I look forward to hearing what you thought.
Does this mean that Akram Afif now has the most goal involvements in Asian Cup history with 9 goals and 13 assists? There is nobody who tops that from Korea, with Lee Dong-Guk being the one with the highest tally for Korea with 10 goals and 1 assist, unless I am mistaken. I have no clue about the number of Opta criteria assists Ali Daei has within the Asian Cup, or other stand-out performers in the past.
They cheated the last three games! Refree didn't give a red card to Qatari goalkeeper in Uzb/qat match
the asian cup looked good but corruption or bad refereeing ruined the whole competition. I'm glad the most corrupt Asian Cup is over...
Complete nonsense. The 2 first penalties were a little soft, but they were fouls in the box, even if seeming soft much worse have been given, even in this very tournament. Frankly they were just stupid unavoidable fouls by Jordan. The 3rd was a clear penalty, and no he was not offside. I could see even from the first replay that he looked on. Iran were not cheated. If anything Iran were favored by the ref in the semi final getting a completely bogus PK and 15 minutes of extra time that came from nowhere. Don't be so bitter.
I don't like to see the referee being blamed for the stupid (unnecessary) fouls committed by Jordan's defenders, the 2nd one not even called by the referee until VAR had him look at it. The 3rd one was also called by VAR by nullifying the offside call by the linesman. The Chinese referee also correctly refused to show a red card to Jordan recommended by VAR. I didn't think he was biased in favor of the hosts. I also don't blame the Kuwaiti referee for Iran's loss to Qatar at all. I won't go as far as @vancity eagle in calling Iran's penalty bogus, but I wouldn't have called it. The extra-time, however, was fine by this tournament's standards.
In a world where they are going on and on about awareness of concussions and head injuries, even to the point where they stop play if a player is SUSPECTED to have been hit in the face. That penalty was completely ridiculous awarded to a player protecting his face from a point blank shot. All that awareness and change of rules to "protect players" then you give a penalty for that. Yes completely bogus. I assume they think if he hadn't protected his face the ball would have just taken his head clean off and gone into the net for an Iran goal. Ridiculous. The penalty rules have to be changed, even more than they already have.
The extra time wasnt out of nowhere. They followed the standards they used at the World Cup, which is effective playing time. There were alot of VAR decisions and stops during the second half. It was completely After the standards. But yes, I dont agree with the corruption talks either
I would not have called that penalty, but it was an intentional handball even if mostly to protect the face. Anyway, since other than the 13+2 ET awarded in the Iran game, I have basically agreed with you, I see no reason to drag this further.
Tournament football can be very exciting and often quite surprising too. But it is seldom a good representation of the actual merit/strength and quality of the teams involved. Imagine, for instance, these 24 teams were placed in a league (home-away) with the champion the side with the most points at the end of say a one year cycle. In that format, my view is that Japan would finish 1st, Iran (or maybe S. Korea) 2nd, S. Korea 3rd, Australia 4th, with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Qatar fighting for the 5-10th spots in the league. These are the top 10 in the AFC right now but in tournament football, Qatar and Jordan can be in the final of the Asian Cup deservedly. But still not based on their overall merit or quality.
Yes the surprising nature of this tournament doesn't change much my overall perception of the tier status of AFC. I still consider the top tier to be Iran, Japan, Korea, Australia The tier below Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Iraq, and others If Jordan or Qatar want to be considered for the next tier they need to be far more consistent even within Asia, but also need to get results against other confedrations. Not too long ago Jordan was thrashed by Norway, although lost closely to Spain and a Serbia B team. Qatar needs to simply have a much stronger record against teams outside of Asia.
Yeah agree with people. I don’t think Qatar was the best team of the tournament but I think they were just about consistent enough at a time when each of the favorites faltered. South Korea pulled off some last gap wins but they never looked good. Japan and Saudi Arabia and Australia never looked anywhere their 2022 form. Iran looked great at times but also inconsistent. Think their biggest mistake was not pressing more when they were 1-0 against Qatar. Qatar benefitted from all this. They were just about consistent enough to persevere and at the end of the day Jordan was done in by its mistakes giving away these penalties.
One thing that I did like is how widely attended it was. I admit I only attended briefly but from TV it seems to be the crowds were bigger than I’ve seen before. Ticket prices were super cheap which I’m sure helped, but I think there were many people from the region that came in — and that was good to see. I’ve expressed my mixed feelings about the tournament now being permanently in the Middle East but the passion I see thereis one advantage. That said, I fear that means the AFC folks will see this as an opportunity to jack up prices for future editions.It’s inevitable in a football world dominated by Infantino. I also think Asian football is becoming more and more competitive. With the expansion of the WC in 2026 I hope more Asian teams get that exposure of playing at a big international tournament. That can only be good for the overall competitiveness of the AFC.
I really hope that Asian soccer will continue to grow to make a good showing at the 2026 World Cup and why not see an Asian country make the semi-finals who knows.
Highlight from the final, and my 11th game at this tournament... Qatar got a first, second, third, not fourth, but afif penalty you could say. No more football for me until Tuesday when we go to see Zenit v Santos in the Equality Cup or whatever it's called here...
VE is not to be taken seriously. He is pro Africa, therefore pro Qatar. He said in WC 2014 Nigeria outplayed France and fifa rigged the game so France wins and for half a decade had a picture of French foul on Nigerian player and continued to be bitter about that. Referees clearly favoured Qatar vs Uzbekistan, Iran, and Jordan. It was not at blatantly "scandalous" levels for Uzbekistan and Iran, but reached that threshold for the final, The first penalty there technically was contact but there was a dive so a 20/80 penalty at best. The 2nd penalty was a clear dive. The 3rd was a legit penalty but it was an injury time counterattack against a desperate to score team directly as a result of being down due to the previous penalties. On balance Jordan played better and had the best chances. My ranking of the best teams of this tournament on balance (though the margins are pretty thin): 1. Iran 2 Jordan 3. Qatar 4. Japan 5. South Korea 6. Australia 7. Uzbekistan 8. Iraq Afif has talent but will waste it away in Qatar league due to his poor mentality. He has Cristiano Ronaldo's cockiness but without the work ethic. He might get an offer from a good team but he ultimately won't succeed in a top league. We already saw what happened to the overrated Almoez Ali after AC2019.
People are also making the logical error of treating each referee decision in a vacuum. Even if a team like Qatar gets a bunch of 50/50 calls in their favour, you have to compare the number of 50/50 calls they get compared to the opponent. If the gap between 2 teams is small, even 1 50/50 call has the potential to decide the winner, let alone 2-3 in a game, that can lead to something like a penalty or red card.
@persianfootball Our football culture across the board, even domestically within our league, has IMO developed a nasty penchant to blame referees too much, with too many fans, players, and coaches dumping all their frustrations on them. This habit is not good for the game, encourages bad habits, and has actually cost us dearly in some of our important games. In AC2019 against Japan so obviously. In this Asian Cup, slightly more subtly in how Qatar's first goal arose after we hadn't gotten a call in our favor at the other end -- and how too often our focus and concentration was not where it should have been against Qatar. Referees, of course, are human and make mistakes too. But in this tournament, unlike in the "old days" (e.g. AC2004 v hosts China, AC2015 v Iraq), I really didn't find the referees hurting Iran as often. I feel Iran now days is left with as much to be thankful on referee calls as it has to complain. (Naturally over the course of 6 matches in this tournament there will be examples of both). But against Qatar, not even in the overall balance of of ordinary 50/50 calls or critical ones, was I left with an impression of real bias against Iran on the part of the Kuwaiti official. The only time the Kuwaiti/+VAR referee calls were annoying me, and were arguably going slightly against Iran, was for around 10 minutes when it was 1:0 already in our favor. I think the referee's bias was otherwise slightly on our side but subconsciously he probably didn't want Qatar as hosts being utterly embarrassed either. Which it could have been if Iran were up 2:0 against a 10 man Qatar inside the first 15 minutes (which might have happened if that referee had put on pro-Iran lenses to make his calls). But the rest of the match, especially after it became 2:1 in favor of Qatar, the calls on balance were mostly in our favor. It was mostly the bounce of the ball not always cooperating. Of course, at the end of the day, we can't get into referees heads; and fans will often disagree about different calls. IMHO, we need to all learn to focus on the game itself and find better ways to fix those instances where there are indeed systemic issues with how Iran is treated on the pitch. Which has been really nothing like how ridiculously unfairly we used to get treated on the pitch by referees.
I was not really talking about Iran, and in terms of Iran vs Qatar my only gripe about that game was foul+red card against Taremi not being given or even going to VAR, then a lighter touch on Qatar being given red after VAR. I had also mentioned that I mainly attributed our loss in that game to the ball not bouncing in our favour. Btw, Qatar, won the fair play award of the tournament as well. That is a joke. Aside from the referee issues, they grassrolled more than any other team. Btw, after this cup, here are all time Asian cup stats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Asian_Cup_records_and_statistics If we give 4 points for a gold, 2 for a silver, and 1 for bronze/fourth here is the all time ranking: 1. Japan 19 points (Japan beats Iran on tie breaker due to 1 more gold) 2. Iran 19 points 3. Saudi 18 points 4. South Korea 17 points All time points per match in Asian cup among relevant teams: 1. Iran 2.095 2. Japan 2.094 3. Australia 1.923 4. South Korea 1.822 5. Jordan 1.682 6. Saudi 1.615 7. Uzbekistan 1.576 8. Qatar 1.5 9. Iraq 1.442 10. China 1.424 11. Kuwait 1.310 12. UAE 1.271 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Asian_Cup_records_and_statistics#Overall_team_records
I actually think the opposite, I thought the ref was more in favor of Iran than Qatar. Iran’s penalty should not have been given, and was softer than any of Qatar’s penalties against Jordan. Also, an insane amount of time was given at the end. I really can’t understand Irani fans complaining about the ref against Qatar. Against Uzbeks, I didn’t watch the game so I can’t talk about that. In the final, the first penalty was soft and I wouldn’t have given them. The other 2 were penalties, and just poor defending by Jordan. I thought the last penalty may have been offside, but I’m pretty sure offside is VAR decision. In an any tournament, there will be terrible officiating, and I’m no fan of some of the officiating as my team (Iraq) was hurt by terrible officiating against Jordan. But it’s best we as fans don’t make the refs the center of attention. Qatar won the Asian Cup, congrats to them. I only wish the final was more exciting, but it is what it is.
I would not replace our record in the Asian Cup with any other country except (perhaps) Japan. None. But we have a lot of fans, commentators, players and coaches who like to mix their legitimate gripes and frustrations with easily falsifiable notions about out our football record in Asia. They weave tales falsified in every tournament which they nonetheless cling to, making football coincidences and simple odds, turn into phycological barriers, jinxes and inexplicable oddities. We broke a couple of them in this tournament, but the most persistent one is something we weren't able to overcome. Overall, besides Iran having earned the most points in the Asian Cup and now with the best ppg average as well, we know which negative records we are also accumulating. Perhaps we don't deserve the glory to match our excellent record when many of our own fans have been conditioned to believe such glory should not belong to Iran in the first place?
I think you have your own biases to color your commentaries. The penalties awarded to Qatar were correct. The first one jumped at you instantly, with VAR both confirming it and making the incident a little "softer" than seeing it live. The rest were also clear penalties by the book. The offside issue being the only question mark on the 3rd one and that is a black-white issue that technology can handle. I would not have given the penalty to Iran, but remember it was VAR and not the referee that flagged it for review as a penalty. It was technically the right call by the book because there was movement of the hands in the direction of the ball/face deflecting a shot on goal. By the criteria and guidelines that exist that was technically an intentional handball. But common sense can sometimes make better calls than the technical rules. That is how I saw Faghani's unfortunate decision to give Amein Hussein his 2nd yellow too. However, Amein Hussein should not escape his part of the blame. He was warned at least twice that I have seen (FIFA said 3 times) and knowing he carried a YC, he shouldn't have persisted. But Faghani would have been wiser to let it go.