maybe we should hold up and see how tonight goes..... getting out of the group is a great achievement but it is just the 1st step the real action begins in the knock outs i think Asia has over taken Africa which was widely considered the 3rd strongest confed but if we are talking about a 'power' shift we might want to see how Japan and S,Korea goes...

Power shift may be too strong of a statement. Asia has gone up a notch or two to dominate over Africa on the world stage. Still behind Europe and South America where the power really is. Another couple of decades perhaps?

I think South America has declined relative to Europe  and Asia.

Outside Argentina and Brazil,  5th placed Peru were knocked out by us, plus Uruguay and Ecuador were eliminated in the WC group stages. 

When one  considers the three Asian nations getting to the  knock out stage of the last 16, Japan, South Korea and Australia are all geographically in East Asia, although we are a bit far south.

In WCQers, Saudi were better than us, and better than Japan, but the Blue Samurai and Aus outperformed them in  Qatar.

The Saudi's first game was brilliant and was surprised they didn't follow it up with the other games. Could have something to do with their lack of mental preparedness or even  toughness? You're right about the South Americans in decline but you can only say that for this world cup so far. Is it an abberation?

What makes you believe Australia is geographically in East Asia?

Australia is part of Oceania which is on a separate tectonic plate to Asia but  is part of the Asia
Pacific region.

Most of Oceania is not on the Australian tectonic plate, and a wee part of Asia is. Take from that what you will.

Dominate over Africa is a bit of a stretch. Asia has won 7 games to Africas 6 in a home world cup with one extra team. 

Also 20 years ago at the last Asian World Cup both Japan and South Korea topped their groups unbeaten with South Korea making it to the semi. Obv Australia werent an AFC team back then so is it a huge improvement? Would certainly want to win at least one game tonight. 20 years ago after those results you would have wanted to be atleast getting 1 team to the final at the next Asian World Cup to call it an improvement.  

How   did    Australia   go   from   the  OFC   to   the   AFC ?

Who   was    it    that    got    us   into   the    Asian  confederation  ?

Apparently there had been a few applications over the years (1960 and 1974 to name a few).
It came after FFA was born, so... I'm assuming Mister Frank.

Frank Lowy.

well if this S.Korea against Brazil result is anything to go by Asia is still a long way away at time of posting it is 4-nil on the 40th min 

Of everyone, I thought Japan showed the best signs in knocking on the door of being amongst the worlds elite.

But in the end, the 2nd WC to be held in Asia ends up being no better for the AFC than the one held in Asia 20 years ago.

Yes, good runs by Japan and S Korea, but at the end of the day not good enough to reach the last 8. Japan should brush up on penalty technique.

If the rumours are true and Ronaldo goes to Al Nassr... the ACL all of sudden could be massive.

Kind of annoyed they didnt fix the qualifying.. there should be an east asia and west asia and then they play off for the 9th spot/playoff spot.

If we want to be taken serious we need to actually sponsor the AFC qualifying.

Aye, and for over 2million per year. That's just crazy/stupid money.

Missing some zeros surely

Yes, a couple. It's something close to 211 million per year.

Yeah I looked after I posted
Holy smokes

Qualifying? As in WC qualifying? 
No I don't think they should do that, unless they split the confederations into an East and West permanently. There shouldn't be any geographical advantages/disadvantages other than "You're in that confederation"
Goes along with the suggestion that Infantino has apparently made that the Carribbean should get an automatic spot at the World Cup..

No there has been virtually no power shift. Two of Asia's strongest teams Saudi and Iran were knocked out in the first round. Despite getting to the R16 Australia is still in decline, as is possibly Korea, only Japan continues to consistently produce players who are good enough for the big European leagues. African is in a similar boat to us, some teams improving, others in decline, but overall they are stronger simply because they produce many more players who play in the best leagues in Europe. Both confederations are well behind Europe, and the top 2 or 3 teams in South America. 

Is it a case of not being good enough, or not wanting to play in Europe? I think there's enough talent in Asia to play in Europe-Japan taking that step in the last few years.

 Asia national teams give way too much respect to the Europeans, and this is the source of the  so-called "weak mentality".  They need to believe they belong at this level, and right now they still don't.  Just getting out of the group was a tear-jerker for them but it shouldn't be.  Asia is good enough to do it regularly.

As for South America third best, who would that be?

Let me help you. Yes way behind the big 5-6 countries in Europe & only the top 2 in Sth America.

Japan beat Germany & Spain & took Croatia to a penalty shootout
Sth Korea beat Brazil
Saudi Arabia beat Argentina
Australia beat  Denmark & pushed Argentina.

If these results were from friendlies, then the cries that they were only friendlies would be heard no end. The achievements by the AFC nations resulted from the toughest and best of competitions - the WC.

It was in EUFA off season so their players weren't match fit..wait.. I mean it was during the EUFA season so their players were fatigued..yeah that's the one, that's what I meant.

LOL good one!

True

But Japan lost to Costa Rica
Saudi and Iran didn't make it out of the group
Korea got belted 4-1 by Brazil
Aussies got belted 4-1 by France
Iran conceded 6 goals against England
Qatar lost every game
Morocco are the only non European and South American team to make the QF

None of the above proves anything, except that world cups like any football competition can yield unexpected results. Both Japan and Korea made the knock out stages in 2010, so with the addition of Australia the performance is only slightly better than compared to 2010.

For us to definitively say that there is a power shift towards Asia and away from Europe and other confederations then we (AFC) would need to repeat this performance at least two more times and have some representation in the QFs.

What's apparent however is that the top Asian teams are competitive with every team outside of the top 6 of Europe and top 2 of South America. I would include Croatia , Denmark, Uruguay , possibly Portugal among that cohort.  But is this a new development? In 2018 Iran drew with Portugal and beat Mexico. Japan beat Colombia. South Korea beat Germany.

There doesn't appear to be any significant shift towards Asia. Our regions best sides are still very competitive (as they have been for 20+ years) but still a run or two below the worlds best sides. Additionally there's still a massive gulf between Europe's mid tier sides and Asia's, for example the UAE who finished sixth in qualifying would struggle to beat bar a few teams in Europe. 

For anyone to say the power has shifted 'away' from Europe you would need 4 world cups in a row where a European team did not win the world cup 

I would of said the power has shifted from Africa to Asia but Morocco have shown that clearly is not true - Africa for the 4th time in the confederations history has a team in the QF 

Bar South Korea (when they were hosting the world cup - which probably doesn't count for as much) an Asian side has never made it past the rd of 16..... i kind of stand by we 'under-performed' this world cup esp West Asia which considering it was in their backyard they didnt have a single nation make it out is a disgrace. 

It was 'unlucky' Japan had 'such a hard' run essentially played 3 top teams beat 2 with drew (lost on Pens) however with the lost  to Costa Rice kind of shows they dont have much upfront when they are expected to go out and win a game - but they are the 'best' national side in Asia has and i reckon if they had Qatars Group they would of topped it - beat USA in the next round - it was such a 'waste' having Qatar host the world cup in a sense they we such a disappointment and embarrassment we couldnt 'really' build any credibility from this world cup without at least 1 side going deep in to the competition. 

Im proud of how Australia did, but the AFC as a whole did pretty poorly looking at it with a bit of hindsight and i think it has put to bed this argument we are 'under-rated' or disrespected by other confederations in general 

List of AFC scalps this world cup.. 

Argentina 
Germany 
Spain 
Portugal 
Wales 
Denmark 
Tunisia 

That's 5 teams in the top 10 beaten by Asian sides just this world cup alone! That's impressive! 

Furthermore Japan drew at the end of extra time against the last runner up. 3 of our 5 qualified teams made 2nd Rd. This is all above expectations. The only thing disappointing that no team made a qtrs but overall was still a great world cup for Asia. Previously at least 1 Asian side was the whipping boy of the world cup but simply wasn't the case this time all 5 qualified teams won a match. 

The WC being in the AFC, the refs didn't shaft us as they would normally if it was in EUFA. 

Nope.  Their coach rested half the Japanese starting eleven.  He did that on the assumption that his second string could get a draw- at least- against Costa Rica, keep the first string fresh for the final game which he reasoned could be the decider.  In the end he miscalculated for the Costa Rica game.

These European countries really need to improve their mental strength if they want to be taken seriously.

Im seriously worried about the new AFC WC Qualifying format.

I think it will make us regress.

Does the AFC have the depth to service a 3rd pools in the short term? And won't the lack of genuine competition stifle our ability to compete against top tier nations? 

By 3rd pools do you mean a 3rd group in the final group of qualifying? 3 groups of 6?

With a bit of bad luck we may get a tougher round 2 set where we'd need to be careful. 2010 qualifying in round 2 was OK but had China away gone bad and the Iraq game in Brisbane, it would've been a bit nervy.

It's true that round 3 would see Australia with one other top team but then arguably the other 4 could be from the lower and of the best 18. Still, it'd be fairly similar to Asian Cup level. The crammed schedule makes it near impossible to arrange friendlies against UEFA let alone confederations without a Nations League.