10 Things we learnt from the WCQ Asian Zone

[Toke-E-Yo]

What did we learn from the final stage of Asian World Cup qualifying?


1. It’s not that difficult to qualify or reach the zonal play-offs in the giant continent.. Bahrain lost four out of the six games but still have a chance to visit Germany next summer.

2. The traditional “Big Four’ -Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran and Japan are still the movers and shakers on the continent.

3. There’s a big gap between the quartet and the rest of the teams.

4. The also-rans change coaches at the drop of a hat – Kuwait had four, Uzbekistan three, Bahrain three and North Korea two – all this year!

5. FIFA think nothing of sending Japan to Iran for a Friday night game and then bringing them east for another vital fixture less than five days later.

6. Saudi Arabia’s Yasser Al-Qahtani and South Korea’s Park Chu-young both have bright futures.

7. North Korea are unlucky.

8. North Korea don’t like losing

9. Asia has some of the most passionate fans in the world.

10. The standard of refereeing in the region could be better.

Here Here! We should get European refs, and send our shitty Asian ones to Europe, so they can finally see how corrupt Asian refs seem

as for the fans, Japan proved itself many loyal fans, during the Japan V N Korea game in Bangkok, were no fans were allowed in, 300 or so Japanese fans stood outside the staidum chanting so they could inspire the team

[RaulMadrid7]

The most important thing learned during these qualifiers is, Iran, S.Korea and Japan are ready to kick some International ass in 2006.

But Saudi Arabia need to do something usefull for a change rather than qualify, make themselves proud beyon belief, then get disqualified the first round.

So I guess the only thing left now before the world cup in Germany 2006 is a waiting game and to see which country develops the fastest.

[Toke-E-Yo]

Saudi can qualify, but can they impress the world?

[ArBaNoS]

agree 100%
i also agree with RaulMadrid7. saudi is a great asian team. however, as far as wc, we are so bad. out of the 3 wc's (94, 98, & 02) i would say we failed more than we passed the test. i hope wc 06 will be the time to shine and regain our rep.

salam all

[stuglue]

Asia is probably the biggest continent on earth,yet their is a massive amount of corruption,instability ,poverty in the area.As far as football goes Iran Japan S Korea S Arabia and China are the BIG guns but after that the quality drops rapidly.In fact Asia and Central America and the Carribean probably make up some of the worst ranking teams in the world(Laos,Belize,Guam,St Kitts &Nevis,Bhutan,Grenadines).

[nachi88]

What did we learn from the final stage of Asian World Cup qualifying?


1. It’s not that difficult to qualify or reach the zonal play-offs in the giant continent.. Bahrain lost four out of the six games but still have a chance to visit Germany next summer.
True good observation.


2. The traditional “Big Four’ -Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran and Japan are still the movers and shakers on the continent.
Japan and Iran were both given a tough time by Bahrain. I wouldnt be very sure of the gap.


3. There’s a big gap between the quartet and the rest of the teams.
same as point 2



4. The also-rans change coaches at the drop of a hat – Kuwait had four, Uzbekistan three, Bahrain three and North Korea two – all this year!
im not very sure about this, but the saudi's also have a habit of changing coaches frequently. Also, from threads in this very forum, I see Korean and Japanese people also want their coach changed.


5. FIFA think nothing of sending Japan to Iran for a Friday night game and then bringing them east for another vital fixture less than five days later.
I agree with all criticism of FIFA.


6. Saudi Arabia’s Yasser Al-Qahtani and South Korea’s Park Chu-young both have bright futures.
I cant say much about this. Havent watched either.


7. North Korea are unlucky.
So are one of the three- Denmark, Greece or Turkey. Atleast 2 of these 3 will miss the world cup for sure.


8. North Korea don’t like losing
This emotion is shared world wide. not limited to the North Koreans only :D


9. Asia has some of the most passionate fans in the world.
Im sorry Toke-E-yo, But I'll say fans of borussia dortmund are the most passionate ever. For each home game, even against poor oppositon of dfb pokal ( german version of fa cup) there are 83,000 + fans. 50,000 are season ticket holders. In national teams, I find the Irish fans most passionate, as they always travel in large numbers for away games, be it against Brasil or be it against antarctica 11 :D


10. The standard of refereeing in the region could be better.

Here Here! We should get European refs, and send our shitty Asian ones to Europe, so they can finally see how corrupt Asian refs seem

as for the fans, Japan proved itself many loyal fans, during the Japan V N Korea game in Bangkok, were no fans were allowed in, 300 or so Japanese fans stood outside the staidum chanting so they could inspire the team

About refreeing, corruption is not continent dependent. Last year 2 bundesliga 2 refree's were caught for match fixing :boo:
They make us ashamed.

[SAMI9]

nice topic ^_^

i agree withe most of what u said especially the last two points....

[Toke-E-Yo]

oops i fogret to sya i got this off www.goal.com