Asian Football Thread

Still, Australia has to figure something out.
This WCQ campaign was disappointing, however it'll end.

 

Australia should be making use of their height advantage. They should be pumping in crosses to Juric, etc.

 

Not very surprising. The Australian media have savaged the manager, his formations and his insistence on playing out from the back.

Look at their players, (with the exception of Leckie) they all play at substandard English minnows, warming the bench elsewhere in Europe or returning from injuries. Simply not good enough to play 3-back and passing football.

Thailand will be much stronger for the next round of WCQ. They were robbed of a clear penalty tonight at 0-0. Great news for Asian football with more strong nations.

 

Syria currently ahead of Korea.

 

I think Leckie, but also Ryan, Mooy and Jedinak are good players. Still, this generation - despite winning AFC Asian Cup in 2015 - looks way inferior than the previous one.

I wonder how SK can qualify playing like this. It's even unfair.
Syria was at WC for 30 minutes, amazing.

 

Iranian major football program on TV praising Japanese football management from inspiration in youth level till their 4 AC championships and world cup appearances. Iran looks at Japanese management as a role model.

http://90tv.ir/video/414797/فوتبال-120-کارتن-فوتبالیست-ها-الهام-بخش-فوتبال-ژاپن

 

The format of AFC World Cup qualifiers will be changed from WC qualifiers 2026 due to WC expansion. What do you guys think would be the best format?

My preferred format:

46 nations at the moment

1st round: the bottom 12 teams of FIFA ranking play a play off match in two legs. The winners join to other 30 teams.

2nd round: 9 groups of 4 teams where the top two teams of each group advance to the final round.

3rd round: 3 groups of 6 teams where the winner and runner up of each group advance to the WC and third place team of each group play against each other in a group of 3 teams in neutral venue where the winner and runner up advance to the WC and third team qualifies to the inter continental play off. The host and qualified 8 teams along with the team advanced to the inter continental play off qualify to the Asian Cup.

 

It seems that AFC is investigating the final WCQ game, I think it is Japan-Saudi or Iran-Syria.

 

@Gordon1995 why?

 

I hope 2026 WC will be changed back to 32.

 

I noticed Uzbekistan was taking it easy against Korea.

 

I think they weren't expecting Syria to equalize in the last minute. Anyway, Uzbekistan always crumble in the late stages. Still remembered when they lost against Jordan when they were the favourites to win.
Not that it matters since they would lose to Uruguay too.

 

Corrected.

 

Australia really need to stop with the possession football imo. They should go back to what work best for them. Pumping in crosses and utilizing their aerial advantage.

Not sure how they would fare against Panama/Honduras tho.

 

I think Honduras has a good chance of overcoming Australia. They're stronger than Syria.

 

It doesn't work like that.

 

Honduras is very hostile to visiting teams.

 

Zac new manager of UAE NT.
We'll see.

 

They've been playing with over aged players all this time? Shameless cheaters.