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...

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.

+1

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.

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

Yep, give more spots to the AFC.

Ecuador are hardly usually a rubbish token team at the world cup, and Honduras have been competitive for one game, they got absolutely obliterated in the other one.

If you had asked me before the draw "Would an AFC nation get out of their group?" I would have given a very confident yes that Japan or Korea or both would make it out.

So for me we as a confed have under preformed.

CONCACAF have showed they deserve their spots and are growing as a confed despite what people on here think.

Edited by TimmyJ: 25/6/2014 12:26:56 AM

FFS just settle say 50% of the World Cup spots by inter-confederational playoffs instead of the token few now, and let the places be filled by sporting merit and not geopolitical exco back scratching.

I never had much expectation for Iran or Australia to get out of the group this time. South Korea's been shiet - about as bad as us in qualification but unlike us they didn't try to rebuild their team - so even lower expectation for them.

But very disappointed about Japan indeed, especially with their relatively easier group. :?

Another brilliant display of structured possession from Japan.

2 games left for AFC sides to get a win.

The most disappointing thing about Japan and SK is that they were lucky enough to be drawn in the 2 weakest groups.

Asian teams have failed because of the location of their base camps apart from Australia.
Japan only dominated against Greece because Greece had 10 men. Greece has one of the furtherst north base camps and went through.
Croatia beat an African nation in the tropics. They fell to Mexico but then Mexico could have had an extensive preperation in the heat of coastal Mexico.
Australia's advantage was nullified by playing in stadium in the South against Spain plus Spain had used fresh reserve players,
whereas Australia's fresh players were rubbish.
Playing the Netherlands in the southern most stadium didn;t do us any favours.
I would have like to play SPain further north then the heat would have caused them to slack off being a dead rubber.

Agree with nearly all of this post, Nickk.

Sometimes pundits a don't take preparation and playing in hot conditions as decisive factors in match outcomes as much as they should.

The exception to agreeing with all of the post is I thought Japan were actually dominating structured possession before the send off.

Sadly, I think you enjoy a perverse form of sadistic pleasure from Asian teams not winning games, Sydney Croatia. I hope I'm wrong though.

I'd define performance as the quality and amount of Proactive play when two teams compete. FIFA's Technical Committee has determined that Proactive play is usually paramount in terms of results, over Reactive play.

Unfortunately, Australia lost its last game, because Spain outclassed us in Proactive play.

Sage post.

I suppose this post puts it into perspective.

I thought Korea had had a better run than that? Although friendlies are a time for experimentation.

As I'd stated earlier in the thread, both the AFC and UEFA sides have performed poorly where it matters - on the scoreboard. That's really the only 'performance' that means anything.

I didnt single the AFC out, the thread is about the AFC. Fact is that they've been the worst confederation at the Cup as they have not been able to win a game. They've got 2 more games so that might change.

Good.

I just get sick of AFC bashing.

I think the Asian federation has progressed, but Iran have probably been disappointing in terms of setting up a game plan hoping to capitalise on opponents' mistakes.

Reactive game plans rarely extrapolate to success, apart from Greece winning the European championship.

Whether you like it or not, the AFC bashing is usually justified.

Yet to win a game in this WC. Last time around Japan got through, the other sides dropped out with 1 win between them. North Korea managed to concede 12 goals while Bahrain couldnt get past NZ in the playoff. Only 1 win in 2006

According to results they've actually gone backwards - 2 teams qualified in 2002, 0 in 2006 (1 if you want to count Australia, but technically Australia were still in Oceania), 1 in 2010, 0 in 2014.

Japan were amazing to watch in the Confed Cup. But lost to some individual mistakes. So Zaccaroni decide to sit back and play counter-attack in the World Cup. He needs to go.

Speaking of the confed cup, who really cares about it?

Should it go the way of the dodo/ the goodwill games?

North Korea 2010?

South Korea made the round of 16 last time too.

As I said, the brazilian conditions (tropical) are not suited to Korea and Japan, both those countries have more temperate climates in Asia, contrary to the stereotype: Asia is not completely a stinking, humid hell hole.

Of the countries on the equator I dont think any of them would have gone well on the basis of skill as opposed to acclimatising to home-like conditions, :-k hmm.. Vietnam? Malaysia? er... Indonesia? Philipines? Which equatorial Asian nation is the strongest?

Edited by condemned666: 25/6/2014 09:08:32 PM

if spain italy england and some other european team were the sole representitives of europe we would be talking about how hopeless europe has been

its hard to read into the results so far at the world cup because they don't seem to provide a coherent picture of whether a change of philosophy is happening

Japan and south korea have both technically caught up to some of the elite in europe apart from finishing (which is a very important part of the game)
however, they struggled against physical opponents

perhaps if there is a change in football it is this. It has no longer the fact that technique only matters. Tiki taka was designed so that a physically inferior side could be defeated 99 times out of 100 by a technical side. This suited spain and ultimately asia. Every country eventually adapted. The technical gap closed enough that the physical side of the game mattered again. Now perhaps sides that are good physically and techically are the sides that will do well

Then again spain might regenerate and blow the world apart again and SK and Japan might have had an off world cup and come back with avengence next world cup.

Results have been so unpredictable this world cup and there have been so many upsets that it is hard to read anything big picture into it at all

Would love to know what constitutes an 'on' World Cup for Japan and South Korea. Only once have either of them made it past the Round of 16 and that turned out to be one of the most undeserving semi final places in World Cup history. Neither South Korea or Japan have ever even threatened to do anything great at a WC outside of 2002, which as I said has a massive * next to it.

both making the round of 16 last world cup was pretty good i think.
Any improvement from that is an on world cup

"Brilliant display of structured possession" that got them wiped off the park.

If a stronger Asian team had been drawn in Iran's place or even into Group E, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. Hell, Australia or Japan would have stood a reasonable chance of getting out of Group H.

So the brilliant structured possession of Japan and SK has twice failed to break down 10-man opposition. SK even managed to concede.

So both Asia and Europe finish the group stages on a low. AFC sides finishing without a win while yet another European side got sent packing.

Croatia
Spain
Italy
England
BiH
Portugal
Russia

They're all sides who would have fancied their chances of progressing, yet all choked spectacularly.

Asia goes out with 3 points, 0 wins, 9 scored, 25 conceded. All sides finished on the bottom of their group.