By switters - 13 Sep 2015 10:52 PM
New Asian WCQ format gives minnows helping hand from top guns
Tom Rogic scored one of Australia's five goals against Bangladesh in Perth, Australia.
Within 30 minutes of kickoff in Perth on Sept. 3, Australia had scored four times against Bangladesh.
Just as the Asian champions did taking on the team ranked 173 in the world, critics on social media were finding their target, upset at the perceived ease of it all. The word 'mismatch' was a common feature in match reports.
The 5-0 win set the scene for a night of bigger thrashings around Asia, prompting plenty of criticism about standards and the Asian Football Confederation's new format of World Cup qualification.
AustraliaAustralia
BangladeshBangladesh
5
0
FT
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For the 2018 tournament, the AFC has done away with the old system of allowing the weakest nations to fight it out among themselves for two full rounds.
In the past, by the time the big boys entered the fray, 26 of the AFC's 46 members had already been eliminated. This time, just six had fallen by the wayside, leaving 40 lumped together on the road to Russia in eight groups of five that featured the strongest and the weakest that the continent has to offer.
The first meeting between these most unfamiliar of confederation stablemates, all at the home of the top seeds, were as one-sided as it gets.
The hosts scored 76 goals, with just three going to the away sides (North Korea, as always, doing their own thing by grinding out a 1-0 win on the road), leading to the sorriest of sequences: 15-0, 10-0, 9-0, 8-0, 7-0 and more besides. It was Goliath dodging David's slingshot and then administering some serious punishment.
United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates
MalaysiaMalaysia
10
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As the goals flew in, questions -- rhetorical -- were asked about what the minnows were gaining from such an experience.
Potentially though, there's plenty. It was painful, but it is shortsighted to dismiss the new format so soon. The results need to be put in some context, viewed against the backdrop of the bigger picture of improving standards at all levels of Asian football.
Nobody has ever denied the lack of depth and lack of competitiveness on the continent. This is the very reason the new system was introduced. So to declare it a failure within half an hour is as premature. If there is to be any benefit, it will only be in the long term.
Critics should remember that it is rare for Laos (who lost, 8-0) to face the likes of South Korea. In a competitive matchup (in any kind of matchup as the big boys don't play such opposition in friendly games) it is unheard of for Bangladesh and Bhutan to take on Australia and Qatar.
In the past, as mentioned above, these teams were usually out of World Cup qualification by the time the giants turned up and were not given access to Asian Cup qualification either, leaving a real lack of meaningful games.
For Laos players -- even the one who was released from his job only after his football boss sent a letter to his real boss asking if he could miss a few days to head to Seoul -- facing the likes of Ki Sung-yueng and Son Heung-min may or may not have been an education.
Laos players crowded around Asia's most expensive player, Son Heung-min, after the 8-0 drubbing against South Korea.
But it was surely an experience. Just look at the way half the team flocked to Son upon the final whistle in an attempt to get the shirt of the new Spurs man and most expensive player in Asian history.
But it is not just about seeing the stars up close. To focus just on what happens on the pitch and that alone is to miss the point. Bangladesh might have been outclassed by the Asian champions, but one Bengal Tiger told this writer that there had been more media attention at home on this game than any other he could remember.
There was genuine excitement at the prospect of playing the Socceroos. It raised the profile of the national team in a country of 180 million and attention for the return match -- and the critics should at least hold fire before the small powers get a chance to play the giants at home -- should be a few levels higher.
Bangladesh's trying to stop Tim Cahill's punching Dhaka corner flags will be a big deal before a big crowd in the capital, and there is a chance, a chance, that something could happen. At the very least, football will be making headlines.
The games are also chances for their top players to get big moves. "It would mean so much for football in the country for one player to join a K-League club," said Laos coach Steve Darby of the Korean league.
Laos coach Steve Darby says the new format would encourage top players of smaller nations to make big club moves.
Some of the nations that have been just on the receiving end of thrashings will never shed their minnow scales. Bhutan are not going to qualify for a World Cup, but just reaching this stage is helping the country improve ,as Ugyen Tsechup Dorji, the president of the Bhutan Football Federation, told ESPN FC in March.
"Public sentiment towards the national team and football has really increased. Corporate support is encouraging for us. ... The country is excited, and we can already see that the academy players, both male and female, are inspired. We want to use our resources in a good way to build a strong foundation."
For Bhutan, a team that was ranked as the worst in the world until recently, being thrashed 15-0 by Qatar wasn't pleasant, but it was always going to be tough. Bhutan might be destined for fifth-seed status in five-team groups for the next five decades, but if they can become a little better every time, then everyone benefits.
Others like Bangladesh have real potential, even if there is much work to do off the pitch in terms of facilities, coaching and youth development and plenty more besides. A few fans watching the game with Australia back home complained that playing on an artificial pitch gave the Socceroos an unfair advantage. There was nothing artificial about the Perth playing surface; it was just pristine to an extent rarely seen in South Asia.
Asia's failure at the 2014 World Cup was a bitter one, and while playing Bangladesh, Laos or Bhutan is not going to help anyone compete with the best in 2018, it might by the time 2038 rolls around.
Perhaps it won't, but it is still worthy of effort. If an organisation moves only as fast as its slowest members, then the best in Asia need to give the worst a helping hand.
And that is what it is all about in a week in which Iceland, a long-serving European minnow, won in the Netherlands and qualified for next summer's continental championships.
It is not just about one night of one-sided thrashing but, hopefully, decades of development.
http://www.espnfc.com.au/world-cup-qualifying-afc/62/blog/post/2606596/new-asian-wcq-format-helps-minnows-to-develop
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By TheSelectFew - 14 Sep 2015 5:54 PM
paladisious wrote:TheSelectFew wrote:Really emo #cut4Bhutan
Only wrote that to bump over the spam.
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