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The Peninsula
Doha: Japan and South Korea's exit from the World Cup on Monday signalled the end of run of the Asian teams in the global showpiece event in Qatar, but the Asian Football Confederation has a reason to celebrate – three of its teams together achieved something unprecedented.
For the first time Japan, South Korea and Australia broke into the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup. And throw in the few upsets caused by the other Asian contenders - Saudi Arabia and Iran in the group matches – you will be pleased if you are Asian. Out of the six Asian teams only Qatar failed to make any impression. Nobody expected them to do so either as they made it to the World Cup simply because the country is hosting it.
The Asian teams at this World Cup clearly punched above their weight against European and South American football powerhouses and their giant-killing shows impressed so many, a fact touched by Australian coach Graham Arnold when he talked to the media before their group match against Tunisia.
“I think it's not so much the shock results, it's the quality of the Asian nations. Asia .. in Australia we don't respect Asia and what their qualities are,” Arnold said.
“We don't respect Japan and Saudi Arabia when we played against them in the qualifiers, everyone thought they were pushovers,” Arnold added before talking about higher football financing in other Asian countries compared to Australia.
Australia beat Tunisia and Denmark – a talented team in Europe – in Group D before losing to strong Argentina 2-1 in the Round of 16. Arnold's team stretched the South American giants all the way.
Iran in Group B overcame Wales 2-0, before losing to US 1-0.
Saudi Arabia registered one of the biggest shock wins when they overcame Messi's Argentina 2-1 in the opening Group C match after trailing. And their coach Herve Renard's rousing halftime talk to his players will be remembered as part of their legendary victory – a wonderful takeaway from Qatar 2022.
South Korea were up against the tournament favourites Brazil in their Round of 16 clash who ruthlessly eliminated them in a 4-1 rout. Although they failed to repeat their 2002 achievement of reaching the semifinals, their overall run in the tournament was impressive – they held Uruguay before upsetting Portugal 2-1 in Group H.
Japan were the biggest giant-killers beating two former world champions. In Group E they beat Germany 2-1 up front before upsetting Spain 2-1. They reached Round of 16 as group leaders before agonizingly losing to Croatia on penalties.
“I think the regret we feel with this loss will lead to something better in the years to come,” said Japan's fullback Yuto Nagatomo after the match.
“We were able to show the Japanese people's fighting spirit. It was difficult to lose but Japanese football is without a doubt, making progress,” he said.
“We cannot be superheroes in one go,” coach Hajime Moriyasu added.“We have to improve step-by-step. But Japan is reaching a level where we can play on the world stage.”
Japan's Nikkei Asia news described Monday's games as“one of the biggest nights in Asian soccer for two decades” while South Korea's Yonhap wrote of the journey of the national team to the knockout stage of the World Cup in what had become a“memorable underdog story”.
Infrastructure development and giving exposure to more players and coaches in European leagues will help Asia push their teams to the next level. It will happen before long.