I think it's a good and very necessary development. Its the only way for football in Asia to progress.
Oh yeah, what an embarassment of a "performance" by Iran. No gameplan. No cohesion. The players looked like they literally did not give a f*ck. The local football club in my town (small town in southern Sweden) u16 play better football than this horse manure I had to endure yesterday.
The way I see it... some countries are heavily investing in expats (Indonesia, Iraq) while some countries suffer from poor management (Australia, Iran). Japan still miles ahead of everyone. Speaking of Iraq, this is literally the first time since a long time where we've had the same coach throughout the whole qualifiers and with home advantage. I've never seen this kind of stability from us.
Your top players will make sure you'll qualify (Azmoun, Taremi). Individual talent is always there for Iran
Ill be expecting Iraq at the World Cup this time around. Could not say Im as positive Iran will make it, if yesterdays match is an indication.
I think there’s too much pessimism among fans of the traditional big AFC nations. It’s only the first game, and there’s always usually a shock or 2 in the first game. In 2022 wcq, Japan lost at home to Oman and SK dropped points to Iraq at home all in the first game. In 2018 Japan lost at home to the UAE in the first game. My predictions haven’t changed, and it’ll be interesting to see how the big nations bounce back in a couple of days.
However, I’m very much in favor of the gap between the big nations and the tier 2 sides closing. But it’s too early to tell imo if that’s what’s happening here like I see a lot of you saying. Middle Easter teams have always managed to shock the “big 5” on occasions, that’s nothing new there. I will say in my opinion, Iraq and Uzbekistan are currently playing at the level of the traditional big 5, and we’ll see if they can keep it up. Jordan and Qatar are very close and arguably there as well. Other than that, not much has changed. Indonesia is promising but unproven. And of course, Japan is really in a tier of their own right now.
Just realized that one big problem North Korea have is that they are playing all their home games in Laos. This will be a huge disadvantage for them I think. No home crowd games, I still have them finishing last unfortunately...
Indonesia changed a lot since then. I counted like 3 players who look south east asians, the rest were white dudes. Dont get me wrong. Im all for whatever improves the competition in Asia. but yeah, Group C needs to take Indonesia seriously. They have starters upfront called Ragnar, and Ivar (not joking!). And the latter sure aint boneless. We shouldnt read much into the results of this round. Lots of teams were caught sleeping. Clearly Saudi Arabia did not prepare at all. The first half was truly embarrassing. every build up ended with an unenforced error pass, as if they play together for the first time. But im also worried about Mancini's style. Its just too conservative with little creativity upfront. But one unlucky deflection or a bounce messes the game plan of achieving the 1-0 score he loves. Maybe it will work in the WC finals if we reach it but we will drop way too many points in the qualifications. and in the last two cycles we challenged and dominated the midfield and did well given the level and quality of our players so i dont understand this complete change of style.
Matchday 3 - Predictions China 0-0 Saudi Arabia Indonesia 1-1 Australia North Korea 0-2 Qatar Kyrgyzstan 1-2 Uzbekistan Oman 0-1 South Korea Palestine 2-1 Jordan Bahrain 0-2 Japan UAE 1-1 Iran Kuwait 1-0 Iraq I see the big boys struggling. Don't believe in a massive change of MD 1's narrative
I Think Saudi Arabia are getting hurt by all the foreigners in their League. Mancini was complaining that 20 of his players are on the bench. They didnt impress at the Asian Cup, and they drew at home against Indonesia and are now 1-0 Down against a weak china side, and Down to 10 men. I really Think all the foreign players are ruining their national team
Saudi Arabia won even though they were 10 men and a goal behind. Thailand should have had Chinas spot, they Would have done better. Meanwhile Australia drew against Indonesia. I Think Indonesia need some offensive firepower. Then they could become a very good team. North Korea and Qatar are battling it out right now in a swimmingpool in Laos. So much rain. I Think North Korea have Been understimated. They were down 2-1 and 10 men but managed to equalize. And they also missed a penalty against Uzbekistan in the first game.
As I was saying, North Korea won't be an easy team and could finish 4th in the group. The worst thing is that they're not playing in North Korea but in Laos.
The gap in Asia is closing and I like it. Its much more exciting now. We all had Uzbekistan qualifying as a debutant from Asia. But maybe teams like Indonesia, Bahrain, Jordan and so on Can do some Damage
Yeah much better to see. No longer the untouchable top three (Japan Australia and Korea). Nowadays every country has to work hard in order to qualify.
Didn't post last night as the game finished after midnight my time. Obviously I'm pretty disappointed with how things turned out for us in this window. No goals and only one point with games against the highest rated teams in the group still to come. Whilst its not the end, obviously improvement is needed to make the top 4 and significant improvement is required to make the top 2. At least more chances were created last night compared to the Bahrain game but the finishing was pretty ordinary and I don't know where the answer lies in that area. Many over here are blaming the coach and calling for his head and I think his job will be under threat if we don't get at least 4 points in the next window. Not sure what other options we have.
Window 1 summary. (NB: I've only watched Australia's matches but discovered last night highlights of most matches are available on the streaming service that covers Australia's away games so will spend today catching up. Comments are based on results rather than an analysis of play) Group A Results Uzbekistan 1 Nth Korea 0 Iran 1 Kyrgyzstan 0 Qatar 1 UAE 3 Nth Korea 2 Qatar 2 Kyrgyzstan 2 Uzbekistan 3 UEA 0 Iran 1 Table Uzbekistan 6 (+2) Iran 6 (+2) UAE 3 (+1) North Korea 1 (-1) Qatar 1 (-2) Kyrgyzstan 0 (-2) A great start for both Iran and Uzbekistan, a disappointing one for Asian Champions Qatar. Group B Results Sth Korea 0 Palestine 0 Iraq 1 Oman 0 Jordan 1 Kuwait 1 Palestine 1 Jordan 3 Oman 1 Sth Korea 3 Kuwait 0 Iraq 0 Table Jordan 4 (+2) Sth Korea 4 (+2) Iraq 4 (+1) Kuwait 2 (0) Palestine 1 (-2) Oman 0 (-3) The most condensed table and relatively close results. Could be a very interesting group with tight contests for the top 2 and the top 4. Group C Results Japan 7 China 0 Australia 0 Bahrain 1 Saudi Arabia 1 Indonesia 1 Bahrain 0 Japan 5 China 1 Saudi Arabia 2 Indonesia 0 Australia 0 Table Japan 6 (+12) Saudi Arabia 4 (+1) Bahrain 3 (-4) Indonesia 2 (0) Australia 1 (-1) China 0 (-8) Japan start in great style with two big wins. Indonesia would I think be happy with 2 draws against teams that regularly qualify. Bahrain wins their first match against Australia, who would be very disappointed with how they started the group. Saudi Arabia drop a point at home, but make up for that with a win away after playing with 10 for the majority of the match. China is off the pace so far.
Nice to get a clean start. Im still not satisified with the performance overall, but hard to complain too much after 6 points from two matches. Hoping things will improve as we go along. Uzbekistan away will be tough. I think Uzbekistan will definitely be one of the top two teams from this round to qualify to WC.
Japan had a poor Asian Cup for some reason but they were by far the best Asian team heading to the Asian Cup and have resumed their ruthless form and again running up the score against their opponents. That leaves little room for any debate regarding the best team from the AFC at the moment. Japan's closest competitor in rank, Iran, can (when facing more serious rivals) still field a decent enough side by relying on its aging veteran players, but against lesser opponents (e.g. Hong Kong or Kyrgyzstan) when Iran's coach is more willing to experiment to transition to a much needed younger squad, the performances have frankly not been encouraging. Our younger defenders in particular have been less than reliable (Hazbavi especially but also Aria Yousefi), Injuries are also taking a great toll (esp. Pouraligangi, M Hosseini, Moharami, Mohebi); the drop in confidence/form of some of our top players also showing in their suddenly abysmal finishing; and all sorts of internal issues and contrived controversies (as well the hopefully soon to be resolved issues with our pitches and stadia) are putting additional unneeded strain and making things even worse. In a way, it is quite remarkable we are continuing winning our matches. The latter not something you can say for the rest of the top ranked sides in the AFC. Anyway, the results from this round so far have been both interesting and in many ways unexpected. To be sure, I still expect the results to become more in line with conventional thinking, but a lot of sides who might have imagined cruising to qualify for the expanded World Cup now look like they will have to sweat it more.
Australia's poor start to round 3 has today seen the resignation of head coach Graham Arnold. Graham Arnold resigns as Socceroos coach ahead of next World Cup qualifiers | Australia | The Guardian Not sure where we go from here. I can't think of an obvious candidate to take over, or at least one that we can afford to pay. We' haven't employed a non Australian as head coach for a while so maybe its time to explore that option again. The leading Australian candidates I can think of all have jobs at the moment.
Tony Popović set to be named Socceroos coach for 2026 World Cup tilt | Football | The Guardian Formal announcement due in 90 minutes. I had forgotten he was out of a job when I posted above. I think the appointment should be until after the Asian Cup in 2027 as that's the natural end of our cycle (and the only trophy we have a realistic chance of winning). The idea of starting afresh after each world cup doesn't really appeal to me and I think it reduces the chances of success at the Asian Cup.
It is a bit surprising at this early stage but I understand why he made this decision. The Australian fans and media were too critical of him and the expectations were way too high compared to the talent that this Australian team has to offer.