yes u are right. At the end of the day i guess Japan deserved to go through, simply because they managed to finish their penalty kicks chances.

Whatever it is, its gonna be one hell of a final. The irony is, while i am here able to watch matches live, i will be missing the final game coz im flying back on that day, that time

This post has been edited by pyroboy1911: Jan 26 2011, 02:59 AM

u know why? in the extra time South Korea brought in their no.20 striker, 1.96m tall Shin-Wook. Hell he looked so tall and big, even taller than the Japanese Keeper! all they do is give him the long ball for him to bring down and the Japanese have no answers to that. Immediate impact i tell you, he is giant among the players!

ok if not turkey, then what about Israel? Israel are totally Asian country. What would happen if one day Israel won the Euro Cup, will people start saying i rather Spain/Germany/England win because Israel is not an European country? my point here is, just because a country is not populated by that particular race, doesnt mean they cant be part of that footballing federation. Footballing governing bodies are independent entities, regardless of political agenda and boundaries, which is why the country grouping arent 100% based on the political geographic. Australia joining AFC boosts the profile of AFC and for FFA themselves, at least they got a proper medium through which they can properly qualify via challenging teams like the big Asian names, rather than thrashing American Samoa 31-0 and the big stars of Australian football not even bother turning up for international matches.

bringing up this issue when that particular team is having success sounds like a sour grapes to me. Maybe people will think i am biased since i am studying in OZ, but this is my honest opinion, thats all. If Japan win it, then by all means congrats to them, they deserve it through resiliency to not lose and their spirit is great, besides the fact that they are a good footballing side. But if Australia were to win it...they dont deserve it because they aren't asian? I wonder if Brunei or Singapore football team which competes in the local league wins it, will people not acknowledge them because they are not Malaysian?

At first i also find it a bit weird to see mat salleh faces in Asian competition. But that time i was like what...16 years old? since then i begin to see the logic and reasons, and began accepting it. Besides their level is also similar to teams like Korea and Japan so there is no worry of them bullying Asian countries because of size advantage, not like they come in and take candy away from babies or any of that sort. Imagine if a team like Spain joined.

Seems like this issue is a bit bigger than i thought...coz so far havent really read any article or news about it being controversial. After all, the AFC committee voted yes unanimously for Australia to join AFC, meaning none of the countries really reject the idea. Would be a great debate topic i think

another issue with this AFC Asian Cup, waaaay too many corporate tickets given out to companies. We arent talking about a few hundred for each company, we are talking about thousands! If you check online, all seats are booked, marked by red. But when u go to the stadium, only about 70% filled. so much empty space which i believe genuine fans from that country, for example Korea or Japan fans, will missed the opportunity to buy the tickets. Instead, a lot of these foreign workers were "forced" to watch.

My dad's company had about 4000 people who had to have their transports settled by a complaining organizer and 5000, thats 20% of the Al Gharafa capacity. Many of them also get tickets but never bother to turn up because not interested, leaving the stadium looked empty.

This post has been edited by pyroboy1911: Jan 27 2011, 02:25 AM

Even if they do allow ASEAN Champions for automatic qualification, then what about the other sub Asian groups? For example East Asian group doesnt have a proper competition amongst themselves. So far only the ASEAN and West Asian have tournaments amongst themselves, and this wont be fair to the other groups.

And if the others have tournaments for qualification as well, then "automatic" qualification berth will be as follows:

Host - 1
Top 3 in previous tournament - 3
AFC Asian Cup - 2
Winner of regional champions - 4

that would be 10 automatic slots, rendering the normal qualification process nearly useless.

PS: Since Australia going into final 3 and is the host for 2015, this means there will only be Japan and the winner of 3/4th playoff for automatic qualification from the current tournament. The main reason for top 3 teams having automatic qualification is to ensure a competitive 3/4th match. So if the 4th team also qualify since OZ is the host now, it beats the purpose of this intention. That would mean an extra spot for qualification i assume?

my bad, seems like it is Central Asia that doesnt have a proper tournament. But Central and South are seemingly put together...coz Central had far too few countries.

So it's subkhiddin who's the 4th official?

This post has been edited by pyroboy1911: Jan 29 2011, 07:28 PM

Japan did great by winning and by the way of it, i am not surprised at all. Their gameplay is to play with resiliency that deny and frustrate opponents numerous times, and then launch a quick split pass to end the game, usually towards the end of the game when opponents are caught napping, teams like Australia, Korea (nearly) and Qatar all suffered late blows. The way they scored against Australia, means they did their homework well. The socceroos are prone to leaving their players unmarked at times and look at the goal...nobody else near Lee at all.

As for OZ, sad to see the golden generation bow out without any major trophies. Cahill, kewell, Neil, Emerton, Schwarzer, Culina...would probably wont be featuring in the 2014 World Cup. So its time for young players from A-league and lower european football league to rise up to the challenge...but i dont see them doing better than the European level players so far. Lots of effort needed.

Come to think of it...if Australia wins it...then the title reads "Australia, champions of Asia" sounds so weird

btw any videos of the cup lifting moments? or the moment after final whistle la. japanese cheer, Aussie's tears etc...

This post has been edited by pyroboy1911: Jan 30 2011, 07:30 AM