It’s a testament to how global the game has become that our nations press has actually taken the time to mention the 16th edition of the AFC Asian Cup. Admittedly, they’ve often referred to it as the African Cup of Nations but this has the potential to be one of the biggest tournaments in a long time and a pre-cursor to an eventual Australian World Cup.
Yes, that’s right Australia are the Asian hosts as they moved Football Federations to increase the strength of opposition they would face and leaving Western Samoa to breathe a sigh of relief at the prospect of never having to face them competitively again.
Australia make interesting hosts, as the only bidders for the tournament, and as we’ve seen on BT Sport in this country the Hyundai A-League (who bizarrely follow me on twitter) is often played in front of packed European style crowds generating an atmosphere that most English grounds can only dream about now.
The tournament will be hosted in five stadiums in five different cities with Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Newcastle on hosting duties.
Qualifying for this tournament is one of the most convoluted with five places in the tournament reserved before qualifying even begins. The best three finishes in the 2011 tournament and the winners of the last two AFC Challenge Cup’s* qualify with the hosts automatically leaving 20 teams to qualify for 11 places.
*The AFC Challenge Cup is a tournament for ‘emerging nations’ that do not compete in the main qualifying competition for the Asian Cup
Group A
Australia
Qualified: As Hosts
Coach: Ange Postecoglu
Best: Runners-up (2011)
Australia enter the tournament with one win in the last 10 as expectation to go one better than last time and lift the trophy has slipped after a disappointing World Cup but home advantage will be crucial. The hosts have been trying to replace their golden generation but still rely on Tim Cahill for inspiration. Australia’s sides doesn’t have the household names of yesteryear but Aston Villa’s Chris Herd, Crystal Palace’s Miles Jedinak and Former City trialist Mark Bresciano will be familiar-ish names to people.
Key Player: Miles Jedinak (Crystal Palace)
Kuwait
Qualified: Group B winners
Coach: Nabil Maaoul (Tunisia)
Best: Winners (1980)
Warm up for this competition was mixed at best as they won, drew and lost on at the Gulf Cup of Nations in November with a 5-0 defeat to Oman the stand out result. The uneducated guess is that a third place finish in this group is the best that can be expected.
Key Player: erm…
Oman
Qualified: Group A winners
Coach: Paul Le Guen (France)
Best: Group Stage (2004, 2007)
Yeah so after a quick google search Ali Al-Habsi is still a Wigan player, I remember a couple of years ago Oman played a competitive game at Coventry and he paid for local school kids to attend and even gave them all flags to wave. November’s Gulf Cup saw them defeat group rivals Kuwait but lost to Qatar and UAE and were thrashed 4-1 by China in last week. Coach Paul Le Guen is probably best remembered for failing to last the season as manager of Rangers. That’s your lot.
Key Player: Ali Al-Habsi (Wigan Athletic)
South Korea
Qualified: 2011 AFC Asian Cup 3rd place
Coach: Uli Stielike(Germany)
Best: Winners (1956, 1960)
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 12 years since South Korea lit up the World Cup they co-hosted and reached the semi-finals thanks to officiating not seen since Luigi Moggi’s life ban at Juventus. Amazingly they’ve not lifted the Asian Cup since 1960 but must be considered amongst the tournament favourites with exciting players like Ki Sung-yueng and Bolton’s Lee Chung-yong at their disposal. Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Son Heung-min was voted the Korean player of the year in 2014.
Key Player: Ki Sung-yueng (Swansea City)
Predictions to progress: Australia & South Korea – huge revelations I know.
Group B
China PR
Qualified: Best Third Placed team
Coach: Alain Perrin (France)
Best: Runners-up (2004)
It’s been more than 12 years now since China’s sole appearance at the 2002 World Cup and they now crave success in a tournament in which they were runners up in 2004. It seems even longer since Sin Jihai arrived at Maine Road and announced himself with a kung-fu kick to a Crystal Palace players head. I read an interesting book last year about Chinese Football called ‘Bamboo for Goalposts’ about a Britain in China trying to run organised football in a land in which groups of more than 10 people were banned and when the development of young Chinese players consisted of sending the best to live in Brazil. It’s interesting that despite three players having played in the Premier League in the past that every Chinese player in the squad is playing their football in China.
Key Player: Yang Xu (Changchun Yatai) – A complete guess based on his 14 goals in 33 games.
North Korea
Qualified: 2012 Challenge Cup Winners
Coach: Jo Tong-sop (North Korea)
Best: 4th place (1980)
All politics aside it was a terrifically heart-warming moment at the World Cup when lining up forward Jong Tae-Se burst in tears as his nation’s anthem was being played. Sadly ridiculed by Match of the Day, it was a pleasant reminder that it is still a privilege to represent your country. North Korea have a young squad and will be looking to do better than 2011 when they only collected a point.
Key Player: please DM me
Saudi Arabia
Qualified: Group C Winners
Coach: Cosmin Olaroiu (Romania)
Best: Winners (1984, 1988, 1996)
Three time winners, the 2011 was the first time Saudi Arabia had not been involved in the final they prepared for this tournament by reaching the final of the Gulf Nations Cup before losing 2-1 to Qatar. Since then preparation matches have seen them lose 4-1 to Bahrain and Qatar. The entire squad plays within Saudi Arabia.
Key Player: Nasser Al-Shamrani (Al-Hilal) – Top goalscorer in the Asian Champions League before being banned for 8 games for spitting at an opponent. Feel Lucky Raheem Sterling. Very Lucky
Uzbekistan
Qualified: Group E Runners-up
Coach: Mirjalol Qosimov (Uzbekistan)
Best: Fourth Place (2011)
Yeah, this is a harder challenge than I was expecting. Uzbekistan qualified second in their group behind the UAE ahead of Hong Kong and Vietnam. Uzebekistan were quarter finalists in 2007 and semi-finalists in 2011 but might struggle to match that result this time around.
Key Player: I’ve tweeted Jonathan Wilson
Prediction to Progress: Saudi Arabia and North Korea
Group C
Bahrain
Qualified: Group D winners
Coach: Marjan Eid (Bahrain)
Best: Fourth Place (2004)
Sadly my copy of Bahrain Football Monthly has yet to arrive but after first round exits in 2007 and 2011 they prepared for the Asian Cup by exiting the Gulf Nations Cup in the group stage collecting just two points from the group stage finishing below Yemen without scoring a goal.
Key Player: Just stop that now.
Iran
Qualified: Group B Winners
Coach: Carlos Querioz (Portugal)
Best: Winners (1968, 1972, 1976)
Charlton Athletic midfieler Reza Ghoochannelhad will be most familiar name to football supporters. No? Of Course not, although former Bolton midfielder Andranik is in the squad for those who watched Bolton in the UEFA Cup on Channel. Having lifted three consecutive trophies between 1968-72 they have yet to go back to the final and will be looking to put a difficult World Cup behind them.
Qatar
Qualified: Group D Runners-up
Coach: Djamel Belmadi (Algeria)
Best: Quarter Finals (2000, 2011)
Qatar started 2014 by winning the West Asian Cup and ended it by lifting the Gulf Nations Cup, this is the one for City fans as he former City loanee Djamel Belmadi is the head coach. The more I read the more I have a feeling that we could see an upset and Qatar reach the final.
United Arab Emirates
Qualified: Group E Winners
Coach: Mahad Ali (UAE)
Best: Runners-up (1996)
UAE have gone passed the first round since they were runners up in 1995 when they hosted and finished third at the Gulf Nations Cup in November. Credited as being one of the best sides in West Asia on their day it will be interesting to know how well they do in this tournament with the recent investment in UAE football from our very own Sheik
Key Player: Buy World Soccer
Prediction to Progress: Qatar and Iran
Group D
Iraq
Qualified: Group C Runners-up
Coach: Radhi Shenaishel
Best: Winners (2007)
It’s a far cry from the dark days of Iraqi football when Saddam Hussein’s son Uday controlled the national team using motivational lectures to the team included threats to cut off players' legs, while missing practice sessions would lead to a term in prison. A loss brought flogging with electric cable, or a bath in raw sewage. Fortunately that’s in the past and hasn’t made it into the FA’s coaching material. Since then the golden generation of Iraqi football culminated in the collection of the 2007 Asian Cup and reached the quarter finals in 20011. However they qualified ahead of China in the group stage but only collected 9 points in doing so and failed to negotiate the group stage in Gulf Nations Cup in November.
Japan
Qualified: 2011 Asian Cup Winners
Coach: Javier Aguirre (Mexico)
Best: Winners (1992, 2000, 2004, 2011)
The current holders and the side with the most European based players. Japan had a poor World Cup failing to negotiate the group stage without winning the game. The Samurai Blue will be looking to win a fifth tournament and prove last summer was a blip. Keisuke Hoinda and Yuto Nagatomo in defence and Shinji Kagawa in midfield will be key players to ensure than Sven Goran Eriksson does not succeed Javier Aguirre into management for a second time.
Key Player: Shinji Kagawa (Dortmund)
Jordan
Qualified: Group A Runners-up
Coach: Ray Wilkins (England)
Best: Quarter Final (2004, 2011)
Ray Wilkins! Yes, Ray Fucking Wilkins is the manager of Jordan, I thought televised Chelsea matches had become less obnoxious recently. The very definition of final pay day is to take a job on the other side of the world just so you can meet Peter Reid for the occasional beer. Jordan qualified through the group stages unbeaten but since Wilkins took over they’ve gone winless in 5 and only scored twice. Bring him back Mourinho!
Key Player: Don’t go there.
Palestine
Qualified: 2014 Challenge Cup winners
Coach: Saeb Jendeya
Best: Debut
Never a good sign when your manager quits months before the beginning of the tournament but Palestine have earned the right to take part in the competition by winning the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup going unbeaten throughout the tournament and without conceding a goal. Ranked 113th in the much-maligned FIFA rankings the nearest European sides they are to are the Faroe Islands (ranked 104) and Moldova (121) and are very much the tournaments underdogs.
Key Player: Ashraf Nu’man - honest
Prediction to Progress: Japan and Iraq
The mancityfans.net football forum
The BEST FORUM in all the land and all the world
