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Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:31 am
by bundibundi
DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- Qatar will host Asia's second World Cup in 2022, but only two teams from the region have any chance of winning it, according to Asian Football Confederation President Mohammed bin Hammam.

"We have two very good teams or, let me say, good practices in Asia: Japan and South Korea," Bin Hammam told The Associated Press. "If there will be any, I believe Japan or Korea can be our team which lifts the World Cup."

Many felt the quality of Japan's Asian Cup semifinal win over South Korea on Tuesday was worthy of a final, and the two countries continue to reap the benefits of co-hosting the 2002 World Cup.

As a result, they have well-organized, fully professional domestic leagues and can call on players with European experience.

South Korea has played at the last seven World Cups and progressed to at least the quarterfinals of the last five Asian Cups. Japan has featured at the last four World Cups, and has been Asian champion three times since 1992.


....
http://tiny.cc/t7bbq


Still not getting any respect. I wonder sometimes why MBH allowed us into the confederation?


MOD EDIT: fixed link

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 9:05 am
by Steelinho
It's actually a pretty fair assessment.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 9:14 am
by sevengoals
Assessment changes on Saturday.





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Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 6:26 pm
by shinAUFC
im not sure how you can talk about the best teams in asia without mention japan australia or sth korea.

pretty clear bin hannond doesnt like us but geez, we wiped were first team to qualify for the previous world cup, the highest ranked asian country and dont get a mention.

you would think these 3 countries will have some big battles over the years and you cant really split the 3

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:18 pm
by David Votoupal
That Australia, Japan and South Korea are not only Asia's best teams, but also world competitive, I have no doubt. What I do question is whether Asia has progressed sufficiently to have a competitive middle and bottom tier. It still drops off significantly once you get past the best dozen teams.

The other issue is that "Asia" is, let's face it, a nebulous geographic expression applied to pretty much everything east of Constantinople. It does not account for the vast differences between West, Central, South (aka the Subcontinent) and East Asia (for which people more properly use the term "Asian"), whether in football or anything else.

But to add to that, the Middle East's strategic advantage in hosting international tournaments is its ease of access to Europe, Asia and Africa, in addition to its strategic economic links to all three.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:31 pm
by blahblah
pretty clear bin hannond doesnt like us but geez, we wiped were first team to qualify for the previous world cup, the highest ranked asian country and dont get a mention.
Bin Hammam was the architect for Australia's entry. Trust me, he pleased to have us, primarily as we don't interfere in AFC politics.

However given that even some high schools in Japan have FIFA accredited coaches, whereas we are struggling to get them at the A-League level, that and the strengths of the K and J leagues ........ it's not such a bad comment.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:04 pm
by shinAUFC
pretty clear bin hannond doesnt like us but geez, we wiped were first team to qualify for the previous world cup, the highest ranked asian country and dont get a mention.
Bin Hammam was the architect for Australia's entry. Trust me, he pleased to have us, primarily as we don't interfere in AFC politics.

However given that even some high schools in Japan have FIFA accredited coaches, whereas we are struggling to get them at the A-League level, that and the strengths of the K and J leagues ........ it's not such a bad comment.
"come join my confederation i want the extra WC spot! Now go sit over in the corner where no one else can see you"

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 2:31 am
by bundibundi
It's actually a pretty fair assessment.
Well I saw that coming from a mile away! :wink: But fair enough, I can see your side of things. However I feel the article still reeks to me of the assumption that Australia are a bunch of hacks relying on bulk rather than skill in Asia. We are a reasonably skillful team, we just have a bigger arsenal at our disposal. Why put 11 elite archers into war when you can stick a few swordsman at the front, cavalry on the flanks, bombadiers in behind and a big fat catapult at the back instead.

We have almost 20 members in our current squad who play in the first division of the top 10 leagues in Europe, Japan has less than 10 and Korea has 3(in current Asian cup squad, couldnt find extended squad list).

In the past few years we have had numerous youngsters going over there, the fact that a lot of them arent yet in Australias 1st team is testament to the current quality of the team (or the quality of our previous manager). Whenever a Japanese or Korean goes over to a European league they're touted as the next big thing and their current managers seem to be willing to give the youngsters a go.


The quality of the K/J leagues are arguably better than our own, however they have had much more time to establish themselves, let alone the budgets at their disposal. We are still producing quality players through our A-League, our best defenders are being poached by these leagues purely for the money on offer (and maybe a seachange) and our best young midfielders and strikers tend to go to Europe. Not to mention an Australian striker recently got the Golden boot in the J-League, and an Australian defender recently captained his K-league team to win the ACL, picking up Asian Player of the Year along the way.

anyway i cant be bothered writing anymore. my brain hurts when i think.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:41 am
by Yids
Fair assessment? No I don't think so. Having played for years, I can tell you right now, the way to beat heavily technical sides like Korea and Japan, is with hard and physical teams.

To be fair, neither three will come close to the World Cup, Japan and Korea rely to much on technique to win games, and Australia rely to much on physical play.

Korea and Japan will get destroyed by teams like Holland, Spain and Germany as these teams have the luxury to have technical players (Ozil e.g) in combination with hard ball winning players (e.g. Swienstieger).

Australia on the other hand, have ball winners, but really lack flair and technical players to really scare the hell out of the opposition. The aforementioned teams will equal Australia's physical approach and outmaneuver and outpace Australia.

Have said that, all three have equal chance of winning the World Cup, and all three have good youth development programs, Australia is behind however with their programs.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:27 pm
by blahblah
they have had much more time to establish themselves, let alone the budgets at their disposal.
This is more what was being alluded to. Australia is heading the right direction and producing talent however the Japanese and Koreans started on a more cohesive path a good decade before us. Japan has over 150 coaches with "A" licenses whilst we are still trying to get all our A-League coaches to that level. We will get there and produce some wonderful talent along the way however the Japanese and Koreans have a more mature and cohesive youth production line.

The unwillingness of Football NSW to toe the line hasn't helped.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 2:22 pm
by David Votoupal
That's because Football NSW, like some other state federations, is a corrupt holdout of the ancien regime.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:20 pm
by Steelinho
pretty clear bin hannond doesnt like us but geez, we wiped were first team to qualify for the previous world cup, the highest ranked asian country and dont get a mention.
Bin Hammam was the architect for Australia's entry. Trust me, he pleased to have us, primarily as we don't interfere in AFC politics.

However given that even some high schools in Japan have FIFA accredited coaches, whereas we are struggling to get them at the A-League level, that and the strengths of the K and J leagues ........ it's not such a bad comment.
Why am I here, blahblah, if you keep hitting the nail on the head like that?

To be fair, neither three will come close to the World Cup, Japan and Korea rely to much on technique to win games, and Australia rely to much on physical play.
That's really naiive. Korea Republic are arguably the best team in Asia in terms of balance between technical and physical ability. Their biggest downfall is their inability to have a very tactically-efficient league. (The K-League itself is a very stone age-ish league that relies a lot on brute strength, followed by some technical ability to kick a ball.)
Japan are also getting much, much better in their physicality, as shown by their defence during the World Cup (Tulio is still young enough to be playing through to the next World Cup, easily) and emergence of players like Makoto Hasebe at Wolfsburg and Eiji Kawashima, now at Lierse SK (just look at him; he's a tank).

Well I saw that coming from a mile away! :wink:
I acknowledge the wink, but do you really think I would be biased against my own country? There's no shame in being realistic and honest about things if you know the region. If Australia really were superior (NT rankings aside), I would admit it immediately and rub it in the face of every other nation.
We have almost 20 members in our current squad who play in the first division of the top 10 leagues in Europe, Japan has less than 10 and Korea has 3(in current Asian cup squad, couldnt find extended squad list).

In the past few years we have had numerous youngsters going over there, the fact that a lot of them arent yet in Australias 1st team is testament to the current quality of the team (or the quality of our previous manager). Whenever a Japanese or Korean goes over to a European league they're touted as the next big thing and their current managers seem to be willing to give the youngsters a go.
Fair enough, I get the argument (and hear it a lot), but a lot of it is due to culture and the lack of scouting in those regions. If you take a look at the Bundesliga this season, you'll notice there has been a MASSIVE influx of players from the J. League. That's in no small part thanks to the recent success of a few Japanese players (namely Kagawa), which has led to a lot more attention from Germany and German agents knowing they can get a quick, easy Euro out of the trade.

As for the "next big thing" statement, the exact same thing applies whenever an Australian goes overseas, the same with Africans, et cetera, et cetera, so there's really nothing to that.

As a side note, there were more than 3 in the Korea squad.
The quality of the K/J leagues are arguably better than our own, however they have had much more time to establish themselves, let alone the budgets at their disposal. We are still producing quality players through our A-League, our best defenders are being poached by these leagues purely for the money on offer (and maybe a seachange) and our best young midfielders and strikers tend to go to Europe. Not to mention an Australian striker recently got the Golden boot in the J-League, and an Australian defender recently captained his K-league team to win the ACL, picking up Asian Player of the Year along the way.
In fairness, Korea is the only one taking our defenders (there are only two in Japan and those were very different circumstances), but to say it's just for money or "seachange" is perhaps a little off-putting and the bad light being put on these deals by the media really hurts our reputation. We should be really happy to see these players heading off to these leagues, where they will learn to play against more technically-proficient attackers (especially in Korea, where there are some great local and foreign forwards/AMs). The more they learn there, the better for us. Until we have more players of that equivalent, we have no right to complain or cry foul, because there's a serious chance that they'll stagnate.
Really chuffed for Josh, but a lot of that was due to the quality of crosses he received (and the fact that Dragan Stojkovic is absolutely amazing at finding solutions to get the most out of players) and not many of the goals were ball-at-feet. Fair play to Sasa, though. He's done superb and has really thrived and shows that he's a great defender in Asia. To say that because he's doing so well because he's an Aussie defender, though, is like saying McKay during the Asian Cup proves that all most A-League players would thrive at the tournament; one quality player does not prove the quality of the league or nation.

(It should also be mentioned that short-hair Jesus was dual-winner of the golden boot, alongside Jubilo Iwata's Ryoichi Maeda [starting striker for Japan at the AC]. It's something that hasn't really been mentioned here in Australia, probably with fear that it takes something away from Josh's success.)

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:26 pm
by Yids
I agree Steel man that Japan improved physically in some areas. I still think that Asian sides are more technical than physical. They still have much improving to do on their physical side of the game before they can push for a World Cup.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:32 pm
by blahblah
I suppose in some regards this is being achieved through having players plying their trade in Europe. If you can be a FB or DM in Germany, Italy, Holland then you're not going to be terribly concerned by the size of teams like Australia.

This is one area I think some of the West Asian sides struggle in as they tend to keep their players at home, limiting their exposure to different styles. You don't see the Koreans hitting the deck looking for a free the same way the Kuwaitis or Emiratis do.

Re: Japan and South Korea lead the way in Asia

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2017 9:38 pm
by blahblah
Thought I'd drag this one back up as according the Fantasy Premier League the Game Week Top Players for the last three EPL match days have been Son, Okazaki and Mooy. The AFC countries must be doing something right.

A bit of pressure on the likes of Yoshida, Ryan and Ki if we are to make it four in a row!