Well the thread is about ranking AFC teams today, not in four years. If there was a tournament today, what would be the results?
As it stands today, Iran, KSA, and Korea will need to retool their teams for 2006. All three have older players that will not be there for 2006. I have said before, Korea is clearly number one in Asia right now, but I don't know if that will be the case in four years. I have a feeling the Korea will do like France did in this WC and fizzle out at the 2006 WC. That being said, I don't know if Iran will even be at the 2006 WC.
speaking about the Asian Games, it seems like Iran is really trying to get back on track. They've been camping out together for quite a while now whereas other countries like Korea or Japan are still in the middle of their league season. By the way, the KFA announced the coach of the Asian Games squad YESTERDAY What is wrong with KFA nowadays anyways? Why are they being so inefficient and slow?
Yes the Professor is really re-shaping the team. It is evident that he wants to make the current U23 team the same team we will use for AsianCup and most likely the Qualifiers. The boys are back from their Euro camp and played a friendly against Azarbaijan A-team (who is getting ready for Euro qualifiying against italy). The results have been posted in the "Iran in Asian Games thread". LOL @ yesterday... Well, once you become 4th place in the world, you usually have less incentive to improve...
Iran was unlucky... but luck is part of skill. I guess deep down in my heart, i realize iran is better, but i would like to give credit to the team that actually beat opponents they were suppose to beat. I hate it when people say Korea was a fluke and they will never do it again. Korean players worked hard and did what they were suppose to do. I'm not gonna let people say "if they played Germany on best 16, they would have lost, so they are only top 16 teams good." BulShit. That's kinda same as saying "If china was in a same group as saudi or iran, they wouldnt have made it." China qualified and Iran didn't. Iran had all the chance in the world to qualify before the team that lost 8-0.
My comments on Iran and its rank In my opinion, Iran had every ingredient to be the top team in Asia from 1998 to 2002. It had the right balance of talent, skill, physical attributes, strength across sectors, and experience to be a decent side even by international standards. In terms of overall results, in this period (i.e. before 1998-2002), Iran did well enough (though still below its potential) if the issue is measured solely by the average points a team earns per game across all games played, weighted according to the strengths of the opponents. For that reason, by the time the World Cup started, despite its failure to qualify for the tournament, Iran was rated the top team in Asian according to FIFA's rankings. It was similarly ranked according to the other major rankings systems such as ELO. However, and very tellingly, at almost every juncture, Iran failed to win the critical games that seperate champions from pretenders. That failure, which goes far beyond just the shocking loss to Bahrain in our last regular qualifier, completely deprived Iran of any right to claim to be the top team in Asia. That much to me is clear and indisputable. In fact, both at the club and national level, Iran to me became a team of chokers, losing the critical games that allow a side to lift the championship trophy. At the same time, improvements shown by Japan even earlier, and Korea Rep by the time of the World Cup, showed that while Iran was chocking its way to standards far below its potential, those sides were working to narrrow the gap between themselves and good teams from outside of Asia. Thus, by the time the World Cup was over, and with it the 1998-2002 football cycle, the top teams in Asia clearly were Korea Republic and Japan. Who followed next in line was not as significant, given that the other Asian representatives in the 2002 World Cup between them combined to score zero goals and earn zero points. The new football cycle is about to start, culminating in the next World Cup. It is right now premature to judge the exact balance of power in Asia for this new cycle. Thus, while Japan still has a relatively young team and can retain much of it intact, many other sides will need to go through a rebuilding process. As it happens, I know I won't be as frustrated as before if Iran fails to do well. Unlike the last time, this time around Iran hasn't been handed such great cards to begin the cycle. It will need to work hard to achieve even those things that left many of its fans nonetheless still disappointed last cycle. But then again, if Iran learns to shed its growing habit of choking, perhaps it doesn't need to be as good in theory to be good in practice. P.S. As of the end of the last football cycle, my rankings for the top 5 in Asia would be as follows: 1) Korea Rep. and Japan; 3) Iran; 4) Saudi Arabia, 5) China. I would have, BTW, been forced to reluctantly concede to the qualifying standings and put Saudi Arabia ahead of Iran if they had not so clearly embarrassed themselves in the World Cup. But the combination of (a) losing to Iran head to head in the qualifiers, (b) topping Iran in the standings on account mostly of Iran's failure against Bahrain, and (c) the embarassment of opening with an 8:0 loss to Germany and going pointless and winless in the tournament, I think works to take away the significant of the fact that they the qualifying group ahead of Iran. As for China, I see no reason to rank them higher than Iran at any point in the 1998-2002 cycle. However, perhaps they will be able to use the privilege of hosting the next Asian Cup to earn that rank in the upcoming cycle.
Simply Ken, are you any relation to Ken McElroy? Good comments BTW, pretty much agree with what you have to say.
"Simply Ken, are you any relation to Ken McElroy? " No. Someone else asked the same question on this board a while back. I guess an Iranian using the handle Ken is not common, although I have used this handle for a long time going back to 1997. In any case, I don't know "Ken McElroy". BTW, thanks for the complement on my comment.
Re: My comments on Iran and its rank Not to nitpick, but the reason for that is pretty simple. The WCQ makes the points increase by a lot since you have to multiply the points you got by 1.5 times. Added to that, Iran played FOUR more games than Saudi Arabia in the WCQ. So that easily gave more points than KSA.
just replying to chachi king's kind analysis but someone here as always want more. what make you feel like copying things from mutated crow from genetic experiment?