AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015: The story so far….

Group A: Socceroos make a statement…Cho shows the way

With the weight of an expectant nation on their shoulders, the pressure was well and truly on AFC Asian Cup 2015 hosts Australia to deliver…and in a barnstorming tournament curtain-raiser Ange Postecoglou’s Socceroos didn’t disappoint with an entertaining 4-1 win over Kuwait.

A small but enthusiastic pocket of fans cheering on Al Azraq aside, the four corners of the sold-out Melbourne Rectangular Stadium were firmly behind the Green and Gold but the majority of the fans were stunned into silence when Hussain Fadhel scored the first goal of the tournament with just eight minutes gone.

But the Socceroos rallied and almost inevitably it was the irrepressible Tim Cahill that came to his Australia’s rescue, extending his national team scoring record with a 33rd minute equaliser.

Match highlights: Australia 4-1 Kuwait

Match highlights: Korea Republic 1-0 Oman

Cahill’s place in the starting 11 was a shoe-in but eyebrows were raised when the team-sheet listed the inexperienced Massimo Luongo in the line-up. But the Swindon Town striker repaid head coach Ange Postecoglou’s faith in him by not only providing the cross for Cahill’s sweetly-struck leveller but also extending the Socceroos’ lead on the stroke of half-time with his first international goal in what was a man-of-the-match-winning performance from the 22-year-old midfielder.

The second-half saw the Socceroos’ old guard and future generation again contribute goals with skipper Mile Jedinak – who would later pick up an ankle injury that rules him out of the match against Oman – making it 3-1 with a 62nd minute penalty before 26-year-old James Troisi capped the win in stoppage-time after a surge into the Kuwait area by 23-year-old Matthew Leckie.

Postecoglou refused to get carried away with the win but Troisi echoed the positivity prevalent amongst the Socceroos’ supporters when he said the result made a ‘big statement’.

And with Korea Republic, a team considered amongst the main trophy contenders failing to make the most of their chances in a hard-fought 1-0 win over Oman – which came courtesy of Cho Young-cheol’s first international goal – Troisi’s remarks took on an added dimension.

Group B: Uzbeks reign in Sydney…Saudis pay the penalty

Group B bucked the trend of the high-scoring start to the other three groups with 2011 semi-finalists Uzbekistan and East Asian giants China edging DPR Korea and Saudi Arabia respectively by a just single-goal.

To be fair to the Uzbeks and the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup winners the conditions at a rain-soaked Stadium Australia were never going to be conducive to quality football as both teams struggled to come to terms with the difficult pitch conditions that resulted from the torrential deluge.

Uzbekistan dominated the contest but only had Igor Sergeev’s 62nd minute header to show for their efforts and the North Koreans could have salvaged a point right at the death but Jo Tong-sop’s side were denied by a superb reflex save from Ignatiy Nesterov as the veteran keeper kept out Pak Kwang-ryong’s powerful header.

Match highlights: Uzbekistan 1-0 DPR Korea

Match highlights: Saudi Arabia 0-1 China

China keeper Wang Dalei played a pivotal role in China taking all three points against three-time champions Saudi Arabia, most notably saving Naif Hazazi’s second-half penalty to deny the Green Falcons, who were without injured striker Nassir Al Shamrani, the reigning AFC Player of the Year.

The Saudis were left ruing the missed penalty when Yu Hai’s 81st minute free-kick took a wicked deflection and wrong-footed goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah to give China the win and send Alain Perrin’s side joint-top of the table with Uzbekistan in what perhaps could prove to be the tightest of the four groups.

GROUP C: Eye-catching Emiratis crush Qatar …Hajisafi stunner inspires Iran

With seven of the 16 participating teams having contested last November’s Gulf Cup of Nations, the 2015 AFC  Asian Cup was always going to serve up some intriguing ‘Middle East’ derbies, the first of which coming in the first round of matches, with Gulf champions Qatar renewing acquaintances with a UAE side boosting some of the region’s most talented players.

But the closely-fought affair expected between two evenly-matched sides unfortunately never materialised, as an impressive UAE , boosted by the creative guile and sublime skills of Omar Abdulrahman and a brace each from Ali Mabkhout and Ahmed Khalil turned the tide of the Group C opener in their favour, after a 23rd minute opener from former AFC Player of the Year Khalfan Ibrahim had given Qatar the lead.  

While Qatar appeared strangely out-of-sorts and were told so in no uncertain terms by head coach Djamel Belmadi, the UAE were at times in scintillating form that has seen Mahdi Ali’s side emerge as early candidates for the potential ‘dark horses’ of the competition.

Match highlights: UAE 4-1 Qatar

Match highlights: Iran 2-0 Bahrain

Group C will serve up two more Gulf Cup of Nations ‘rematches’ with the presence of Bahrain, who will need to take maximum points from their neighbours if they are to make the knockout phase of the AFC Asian Cup for only a second time after reaching the semi-finals in 2004, following a 2-0 defeat to Iran.

An impressive crowd of over 17,000 turned up at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, with the overwhelming majority backing Team Melli.

The Iran fans in the stands had to wait until first-half stoppage time for the opening goal but it was certainly worth waiting for, with Ehsan Hajisafi showing some nimble footwork to curl the ball past Sayed Mohamed Abbas with the outside of his right boot for an early contender for goal of the tournament.

Veteran Masoud Shojei , who plays his club football in Qatar, doubled Iran’s advantage in the 71st minute to give the three-time champions a comfortable victory and confirm Carlos Quieroz’s side’s status as one of the teams that could go far in the competition.

GROUP D: Champions cruise against plucky Palestine…’Swindon ‘ strikes again!

The fairy tale that many neutrals had been hoping forwhen AFC Challenge Cup winners Palestine were drawn to face defending champions on their Asian Cup finals debut went unwritten as the Japan showed they had no time for soccer sentimentality and went about the Group D opener with ruthless efficiency.

Any hopes of a potential upset began to diminish as early as the eighth minute when Yasuhito Endo, appearing in a Japanese-record 18th AFC Asian Cup finals match, opened the scoring before further first-half goals from Samurai Blue superstars Shinji Okazaki and Keisuke Honda epitomised that the gulf in class between the two is as wide as the distance between Tokyo and Jericho.

Maya Yoshida added a fourth, four minutes after the interval but whether the four-time Asian Cup champions took their foot of the gas or that Palestine had perhaps shaken off the pre-match nerves and, with defeat inevitable, played without the pressure of the first half, the Southampton defender’s header marked the final goal of a one-sided game.

One thing that wasn’t open to conjecture was that Palestine, despite going down to ten men when Ahmed Mahajna was given the first red card of the tournament in the 73rd minute, were more solid defensively in the second-half, with goalkeeper Ramzi Saleh particularly influential in restricting Japan’s scoring to just Yoshida’s early effort.

Match highlights: Japan 4-0 Palestine

Match highlights: Jordan 0-1 Iraq

The outcome of the match between the four-time Asian Cup winners and the tournament debutants was perhaps relatively predictable unlike the second Group D match between 2007 champions Iraq and Jordan, a game that many observers believe could determine who finishes runners-up in the table behind tournament favourites Japan.

And it was Iraq that edged a hard-fought encounter punctuated by some occasionally ‘over-enthusiastic challenges that saw referee Fahad Al Mirdasi dish out six yellow cards, which included two for Jordan’s Anas Basi Yaseen, who was dismissed with six minutes left to play and Ray Wilkins’ side trailing to Yasser Kasim’s 77th minute effort.

Yasser’s deflected effort not only sealed Iraq’s crucial win, it also saw the first round of matches end the way it started, with a player who plays his club football for English League One side Swindon Town scoring their first AFC Asian Cup finals goal, with the 23-year-old midfielder repeating the achievement of his club mate Luongo. A fascinating vignette of what is already shaping up to be a very fascinating tournament.