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Japan and South Korea lead way for Asian football

‘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.

Both brought youthful squads to Qatar, with an average age of 25. Australia’s was 28, with key players Lucas Neill, Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer and Tim Cahill all on the other side of 30.

With Australia joining the Asian fold in 2006, the confederation has a strong core, but at the Asian Cup, there was a sense that while teams from the eastern half were getting stronger, they were leaving those from the west in their wake.

Iran used to dominate Asian football but the last of its three Asian Cup wins came in 1976, and outgoing coach Afshin Ghotbi felt that simply by reaching the quarterfinals in Qatar, his team had achieved ‘greatness’ given its resources.

‘Iranian football has a lot of issues to resolve if it’s going to compete at the top level and be successful,’ Ghotbi said. ‘We have a lot of growing up to do.

‘It starts with infrastructure and the education of coaches, players and clubs, the link between the youth system and the professional teams, and then to the national teams,’ Ghotbi added. ‘South Korea and Japan have created good models and they show it in international competitions. We need to look at those models and learn from them because if you want to win consistently you need to build long term.’

Saudi Arabia, another former powerhouse of the region, made a humiliating first-round exit after three straight losses, while a promising United Arab Emirates registered one point before also going home after the group stage.

The UAE has never had a problem finding raw talent. It reached the quarterfinals of the 2003 World Youth Championship, where Ismaeil Matar won the Golden Ball for the best player at a tournament also featuring Spain’s Andres Iniesta, Argentina’s Carlos Tevez and Brazil’s Dani Alves.

Matar, then 19, was linked with a move to the French first division, but his club Al Wahda refused to release him from his contract and he has stayed there ever since.

With a domestic league which lags behind in terms of coaching and physical education, the UAE national team has made little tangible progress since qualifying for the World Cup in 1990.

And while South Korea, Japan and Australia can call on several players with experience in Europe, there is only one player from the Gulf region playing in any of Europe’s top leagues: Oman goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi (currently on loan at Wigan from Bolton).

India can’t even boast that. The country only has one stadium fit to host a World Cup qualifier, and during the Asian Cup, its coach Bob Houghton repeatedly called on the country’s football federation to overhaul its domestic infrastructure.

‘There are no shortcuts,’ the Englishman said. ‘We need to make sure our domestic program is good, then we can start producing players that will improve our national team.’

China, with the largest population in the world ahead of India, was another also-ran in Qatar. Bora Milutinovic, a well-traveled coach who once was in charge of China, says the country will remain an outsider because of widespread corruption, poor organization and lack of interest. He said Belgrade, the capital of his native Serbia, with a population of under 8 million, alone had more registered players than China.

Bin Hammam said the AFC is continuing its efforts to bring domestic football across the region up to European standards.

‘Most of our players used be amateurs players or semi-professional, where football is not their life,’ the Qatari said. ‘Now, we are introducing professional football in Asia.

‘Of course, the environment is still not perfect because maybe we have professional players but not professional organizations. I think we are doing a huge job. We would like to be equivalent to Europe. We know we have to year-by-year close this gap between us.’

Judging by World Cup performance alone, it seems the gap is still wide. In South Africa last year, Japan and South Korea made it out of their groups but fell in the next round, and South Korea’s run to the semifinals in 2002 still remains Asia’s best performance at a World Cup.

By 2022, Qatar, with its apparently limitless resources, hopes to have built a competitive team, but it seems Japan and South Korea will once again bear the burden of expectation for Asia.