Asian Cup kicks off with eye-catching results

The Asian Cup kicked off on the weekend, bringing us the start of what is not just Asia’s tournament for national teams, but also a year’s worth of continental tournaments. Africa, South America, and CONCACAF will all host their respective tournaments later this year.

Though the Asian Cup only started Sunday, already it has delivered a few eye-catching results. Defending champions Australia faced little fancied Jordan but were shockingly beaten 1-0. Meanwhile, India blasted Thailand 4-1 for their first Asian Cup win since 1964. The defeat was so humiliating that the Thais promptly fired their coach Milovan Rajevac.

This year’s Asian Cup has 24 teams for the first time, with the previous editions from 2004 to 2015 having had 16. As a result, countries like India and Vietnam get a chance to shine while Kyrgyzstan, Philippines and Yemen make their debuts. This is in line with other continental tournaments as UEFA’s European Championship expanded from 16 to 24 teams in 2016 while the African Cup of Nations will do the same this year.

However, many of these countries are admittedly poor at soccer, so there may be a number of one-sided mismatches in the group stage, such as Iran’s 5-0 dismantling of Yemen. South Korea, for instance, feel comfortable enough to allow star forward Son Heung-min to remain playing for Spurs in England before flying in for their final group game against China.

At least Son will still make an appearance, which is good as there are not many big names at this tournament. The fact it takes place in the middle of the European soccer season means it is tough for Asian players in Europe to be permitted by their clubs to participate in the Asian Cup. So even though the Philippines are making their debut, they will be without their most well-known player, Cardiff goalie Neil Etheridge.

However, Jordan have already proved that they deserved to be here. Australia seemed listless in their loss to Jordan, which might be a fair reflection of their squad.

Without Tim Cahill in a tournament for the first time in what must seem like a lifetime, Australia do not have any proven goal scorers and will find it tough to get goals. Traditional powers like Iran and Japan should be favored while Iraq and South Korea can never be counted out.

Whatever the case, plenty of people will be enjoying the Asian Cup, the first of a year’s worth of continental championships in 2019.