AFC should have performed a bit better with the conditions (humid and tropical)

But South Korea and Japan are both in more temperate regions in Asia, and going to Brazil with its conditions is a bit alien for a lot of Australians.

In terms of acclimatising to foreign conditions: Im expecting teams like Germany, The Netherlands, and if a team like Denmark qualifies for Russia, to do well in the Russian World Cup, but expect the South American nations to be frozen out :lol:

Can anyone back up the fact the World cup being held in Brazil has benefited the South American/ Iberian American nations? Even honduras and ecuador have been competitive, and theyre usually rubbish token teams at World Cups

Edited by condemned666: 24/6/2014 07:34:17 PM

Is it really underperforming? If you look at the form coming into the WC of the Asian teams it's not really a huge surprise, apart from Japan, the other 3 come into the tournament on the back of really bad runs, and as afro mentioned, have unluckily been drawn in some really tricky groups.

Iran: 1 win in their last 5, a 2-0 win against Trinidad and Tobago. This includes draws against Angola, Belarus and Guinea.

Japan: Won their last 4 games coming into the tournament, although it has to be said the only decent opposition they faced was Costa Rica. The other wins came against New Zealand, Cyprus and Zambia.

South Korea: Won just 2 of their last 7, against Costa Rica and Greece, but lost to Russia, USA, Tunisia, Mexico and Ghana scoring just 1 goal and conceding 13. Also have to remember they barely scraped through to Brazil in an automatic place, so their struggles aren't that new.

Australia: Won just 2 and lost of their last 7 games, which include the twin 6-0 losses to Brazil and France.

+1

I havent said anything about their 'performance'. They performed admirably in their opening two games. Full credit to them.

Not sure what that has to do with the fact that AFC sides are yet to record a win. It's a poor performance (when I talk about performance, I'm referring to results... you know, that thing that actually matters at this level) by the confederation whichever way you look at it. Points arent awarded for effort and putting up a good fight. They're awarded for outscoring the opposition. None of the sides have been capable of doing it so far.

I'm not sure who is shifting goalposts here or if you even understand the meaning of the term.

This thread is about the Asian Football Confed in general, I'm not saying Aus didn't play well we did (besides against Spain) we showed the world we are not push overs. But over all this has been pretty disappointing (at this point in the competition) for the AFC.

I personally though Japan and South Korea had strong enough squads to make it to the final 16, and as previously mentioned by others 9 games in to the world cup and the entire confederation at the same amount of pt NZ managed to get last world cup.

Personally i think that we have under performed as a confederation. As for performances and on the park entertainment yea it is been average-to-good but in reality the end results haven't been there...

You're happy to move the goalposts to show yourself as a scoreboard analyst, so I'll let you speak for yourself.

The Socceroos' performance speaks for itself too, and the whole world knows it.

The scoreline might be considered a bit of a shock, but this was a WC Final rematch. Netherlands should have probably beaten Spain in 2010 on the balance of play. The Dutch beating Spain shouldn't be considered an upset...

The reason I'd argue that the Chile game might not be considered an upset is because there were already question marks over Spain before the tournament started. Plenty were wondering how motivated the players would be after winning absolutely everything. There were also question marks over their fitness after a lot of football without much rest - Euros, Confeds Cup, Barca and Madrid going deep into all of their competitions etc.

Spain might be defending World and Euro Champions but many people questioned if this was one tournament too far for some of the squad. After the 5-1 crushing at the hands of the Netherlands the 2-0 loss to a highly-rated Chile isn't much of an upset.

I'd call it an upset. Would call Netherlands smashing them 5-1 an upset too, but agree neither Chile nor Netherlands would be considered minnows

No goalposts have been moved - 9 games, 0 wins, 3 points

Realistically, who expected any of the AFC teams to go out there and be world beaters?

Japan in a group with Ivory Coast and Colombia, they were long odds to qualify.
Iran in a group with Argentina, Nigeria and B&H, they were never really considered a chance to qualify. They at least put up a fight against Argentina and have the easiest game in their group to come still and could sneak through.
South Korea are the weakest they've been in a long time and were never expected to get past Belgium and Russia. Capitulation against Algeria was just salt in the wounds.

And Australia...welp, fuck.

Way too much goalpost moving to keep up with in thread.

South America are the big winners but North America (3 out of 4 with a strong chance to progress) and Africa (3 out of 5 with a strong chance) have been punching above their weight.

Chile beating the back to back European Champion and current World Champion not an upset...

The other way of looking at Japan and Korea, is that many elements to their game are better than the mid ranking Euro nations.

In the future , we are going to have a tough opposition from Japan, Korea and China to qualify for anything. At the same time we're making up ground on Europe. If we qualify for tournaments, we should be more competitive when we get there.




Edited by Decentric: 23/6/2014 05:30:09 PM

The only time AFC teams have done anything is in 2002. And that's because FIFA paid the refs for Korea to get into the knockout stages.
Once the money dried up they got smashed in the semi and 3rd place playoff.

I said "aside from Costa Rica and the US". I think plenty of minnows have troubled the big sides, but it's hardly been a WC full of giant slaying as some would like to make out.

Upsets happen all the time. Whether Chile beating Spain can be considered an upset is debatable in itself.

Only marginally, thought it was quite even.

Watching the replay of Sth Korea/Algeria now, and the Algerians absolutely destroyed the Koreans. Embarrassing.

I thought Japan were the better team against Greece and Korea were the better team against Russia.

In terms of Proactive play, we've done quite well.

Iran have set up to play defensive football, which is disappointing.

Asian teams haven;t done well because none of the hot weather teams have made it. Iran is at altitude at about 1000m so that keeps things cool there. Australia has tropical areas though no teams there anymore but has players from Europe and are facing tough teams in the cooler south.
Remember Iraq won the Asia cup in 2007 so they would be the best hot weather team, though they also have a history of being bought off by other middle east teams in world cup qualifying. If you remember somehow Iraq beat China and caused Australia problems yet lost twice to Qatar in the same qualifying group. Concacaf all teams there have hot areas, the south of the US, coastal parts of Mexico and Central american teams. African teams are even better placed though they have too many Europeans and not sure whether they utilised a camp in their native countries.
I would have liked to see Australia playing all there games in the North and using Darwin as a training base. Then using McKay,Zadkovich and Murdocca who can run any number of miles in extreme heat. EVen if your only play one game in the north it can drain players remarkbly, so Australia didn;t have that benefit either with no game in the north in the group.

Uruguay was beaten by a minnow, as was Italy.
I don't know if you would class Chile as a minnow, but beating Spain was considered an upset.
Portugal struggled against USA and was lucky to walk away with a draw when in reality, Portugal should of won comfortably.

I think we are doing well enough. No team has really been embarrassingly outclassed the teams like China and Saudi Arabia were 12 years ago. We aren't picking up the points but we are making the other confederations work very hard to take them off us.

Whoops... time for another coffee :lol:

Algeria-Russia doesn't really have anything to do with the AFC. :p
and you've missed South Korea vs Belgium. :d

FWIW, I reckon Iran has the best chance of getting anything from the remaining games.

-PB

Remaining games:

Oz - Spain
Japan - Colombia
BiH - Iran
Algeria - Russia

Finishing on 0 wins isnt completely out of the question. I doubt that any spots will get taken away though. Allocation is just as much about money/audiences as it is about performance.

geez its not over yet and look at the 2006 results*

Iran 1
Japan 1
South Korea 4
Saudi Arabia 1

none of them progressed and still asia kept its .5

for the most part Aisa always do fuck all at the world cup.

*australia didn't qualify through asia and doesn't count imo.

Edited by RDSA: 23/6/2014 02:03:13 PM

But this isnt about just Australia im talking about our confederation. We are part of the ACF we have 'preformed well' dont get me wrong but when you look at the AFC as a whole i would of thought at least 1-2 teams would be on 3-4 pts at this stage...

I agree with you but at this moment i n time Australians mindset is fixated on performances. Onwards to Asian Cup and Russia 2018.

Further to this, aside from Costa Rica and possibly the US, how many 'minnows' have actually caused the 'giants' to fall?

Portugal's issues were caused by Germany.
England's were caused by Uruguay and Italy.
Spain by Holland and Chile.
Argentina have been troubled but are still on 6 points.

So really, which giants have been knocked off by minnows?

Yea i have

Iran parked the bus against Arg and played horrible football!

I saw Japan toothless against a 10 men Greece!!

The South Koreans were down 4-nil last night (against Algeria!) and the only reason they got a pt against Russia was due to a GK error.

I agree we have played well but i think you have to be smoking the pipe if u think Asia has actually done well

Minows have played well Costa Rica, USA etc but none of the Asian teams have preformed. Im proud of Australia but 0 pts is still 0 pts

and in 8 Games the fact is Asia has 3 pts to show for it which imo is pathetic!

I think maybe you should watch some football instead of reading articles and hitting up the highlights on foxsport champ...





Edited by Davstar: 23/6/2014 12:54:56 PM