eyewitness
team in the tournament.
Concerns that expanding the finals
from 16 teams to 24 would impact
negatively did not really hold true;
and although the quality at the top
was patchy, the mid-ranking teams
showed signs of improvement.
Of the three first-timers, Kyrgyzstan
made the knockout stage, Philippines
were competitive and only Yemen
struggled – but with almost half of
their squad still based and unable
to play in the war-torn country, that
is understandable.
Of the other outsiders, India thrashed
Thailand 4-1 and only missed out on the
knockout stage after conceding an injury-
time penalty to Bahrain, who pushed
South Korea all the way in their last-16
clash. Jordan beat holders Australia and
Palestine picked up a first point, though
a talented Syria team disappointed.
Thailand recovered from their openingloss to qualify for last 16, where they
were joined by Vietnam to give Southeast
Asia two representatives in the knockout
stage. Vietnam’s young side are one of
the fastest improving teams in Asia and
they made it to the last eight before
narrowly losing 1-0 to Japan.
Apart from Vietnam, the quarter-final
stage had a familiar look, despite the lack
of fluency from some of the bigger sides.
Australia, who were struggling withinjuries to key players such as Aaron
Mooy, only scored in two of their five
games and went out to hosts United
Arab Emirates, while South Korea
had lots of possession throughout
the tournament but suffered their
age-old problem of not taking their
chances. The arrival of Son Heung-min after the first two games briefly lifted
the team but the Tottenham Hotspur
forward looked tired, frustrated and - as
is often the case for his country – unlike
the seemingly carefree star who sparkles
in the English Premier League.
China struggled and Marcello Lippi
returned to Italy with little to show for
his time in charge. Picking the oldest
squad in Asian Cup history, at 29.2
years, suggested that the former World
Cup-winning boss had little faith in the
younger generation.
Along with Qatar, Iran looked good
early on and, with no goals conceded,
Asia’s highest-ranked team went past
Oman and China to book a semi-final
spot against Japan.
This was the titanic showdown the
tournament had been waiting for. Japan
had taken time to get going and under
new coach Hajime Moriyasu showed^
a more pragmatic side. Against Saudi
Arabia, in the second round, they won
with just 24 per cent of possession –
an unbelievable statistic and unheard of
for a team that has been known for its
passing game for years. However, they
produced by far their best performance
in the last four to beat Iran 3-0.
The other semi was an all West Asian
affair. Hosts UAE had toyed with the idea
of firing coach Alberto Zaccheroni before
it all started due to poor results and
performances, but somehow they made
it to the semi-finals before being sweptIt is always hard to lose a semi-final, but
doing so in your own capital against a fierce
rival was especially painful for UAEHome support...more than 38,000 watched the host’s semi-final game at Abu Dhabi’s Mohammed bin Zayed StadiumApathy...empty seats
at Japan’s game
against Oman