I'm going to watch Australia v Korea Republic match live thats the only big name games in the group stage, for semis wait till i know who play who then only buy tickets.

The AFC Challenge Cup is exactly what you said bro: to give opportunity for smaller teams to participate in the big tournament. FYI the AFC challenge cup is mainly participated by the Emerging Countries and a few of the Developing Countries. So each Asia Cup will have at least 2 of these countries participate, since Asia Cup is every 4 years and the AFC Challenge Cup is every 2 years. Those that didn't win the challenge cup, can still qualify via the asian cup qualifiers, like what u said about Estonia (AFC Asian Cup is not the only way for small countries to qualify, it is an easier alternatives). Chances are, it's easier to qualify if you play against countries of the same standard than to fight Asian giants. Of course if you think you can qualify via qualifiers like the Estonia example, then feel free to try.

It's a bit similar to the concept of qualifying for Europa Cup. For example, if you wanna play in Europe u gotta finish top 7 in the English league right? Another ALTERNATIVE is to win the league cup or FA Cup. Not really the same thing la, but my point here is these tournaments are "alternatives".

This post has been edited by pyroboy1911: Jan 1 2011, 11:45 AM

Discussion aside, I was checking in to Qatar airways earlier and some of the Malaysian officials contingent to the Asian Cup is also same flight. Among them is world cup referee subkhiddin salleh. Will try to take pics later when in the departure hall

hehe din ask where he stayed

my family stayed here la

Anyway, pics! stalker mode:



but after that we talked a bit la, during immigration line up and baggage claim. Another China referee also there, they intro him to me selepas salam2 dan bergoodluck2, they left.

yes, he is already 44...next year 45. but just now he talked with another women, she ask him if he gonna retire after this..but he said see first..if he still fit, and no problems with job, then maybe FA can give extension. They also discuss about the FA, how the youngsters perform etc. Inside scoop, i'm becoming LYN's spy

Oh Datuk Yap Nyim Keong also there, he used Business class. He criticized the Indo press I dunno he comes to watch Asian Cup, or just to vacation as he claimed. He said no AFC officials invite him there, so he merajuk and dun wanna watch

This post has been edited by pyroboy1911: Jan 3 2011, 12:03 AM

haha yea, dont care how la they qualify etc. just watch the game i wanna find out about tickets for the Qatar v Malaysia Olympic squad friendly as well.

so far, for the normal one is about Qatar Riyal 40, more or less RM40. when i buy my South Korea v Australia match, theres still plenty of seats. now i check, nearly all the seats around me are booked. left the seats behind the goals, corners etc. Semi finals tickets for good seats are also more or less booked, but i dont wanna buy those tickets first coz dunno who will be playing. Final i din check, coz i am flying back on that day

cheaper tickets for the not so nice seats are about QR25 i think, and children price is QR5 only! VIP ticket is QR100, so overall the tickets are relatively cheap i would say.

i check Qatar football website, no news yet....

hehe on the contrary, club level aside, i am studying in Australia so if Malaysia isn't playing in it, i might as well go for my "second home"

i have no idea bro, that info i also got from here. Qatar's FA site is horribly out of date.

Qatar is 5 hours slower than Msia, so if the match is 4.15pm, then it will be 9.15pm im Msia

u might wanna start watching earlier for some opening ceremony

i think the opening ceremony starts at about 6pm local time, which is 11pm Malaysia time.

And it begins!

Fireworks just finished, can hear and see it from my home. wanna take pic but too late, finish ady

Being the host Qatar is expected to perform but from the looks of it, they might not even make it out of the group stage, with Kuwait and China both strong teams as well..

A horrible performance by Qatar I would say. Not only that, the fact that the whole world is looking at their match, plus their promise of showing the world they are worthy to host the performance..they are certainly inviting criticism here. Plus the Emir of Qatar is present to watch, he won't be happy

haha yea when ref's name appear on screen i was like...oh China's gonna win

haha and Kuwait got their first red card!! 2 match i watch this guy refereeing, 4 red cards given in favour of China. but to be fair that Kuwaiti guy did kick out at the china player when tangled.

first half is full of sliding tackles, especially from the Kuwait side. Second half a bit toned down.

Anyway just got my tickets from the ticket booth:



Excited

hhmm...joining AFC is one thing, joining AFF is another. Like Alessandro said, it does seems the local bragging rights will be unbalanced. We already have debates on whether naturalization is appropriate or not, what more to say a whole team of outsiders to play...But what to do, Australia is closest to SEA if the AFC were to be divided into regions (SEA, East Asia, Gulf countries etc).

And i think your explanation on why Suzuki Cup is considered as Friendlies under FIFA is right, i dont think any other continent have regional tournaments like Asia.

Back to Asian Cup, Australia v India and South Korea v Bahrain tonight. Pretty clear cut on who SHOULD win, but as last night's matches show, upsets are very possible. On a personal note, i can only watch the first half of Australia match and gotta miss Korea's coz there's a company dinner that i had to attend, leaving at 5.30pm

Premier League combo of Emerton - Cahill gets Australian their first goal in just 11 minutes. Cahill had another great looping header into the net but was deemed offside by the linesman.

Kewell got another goal, way way too much space for him left by the Indian defense.

This post has been edited by pyroboy1911: Jan 10 2011, 09:43 PM