Performance of Asian teams in the 2010 FIFA World Cup
For a long time, the best performance by an Asian team in the World Cup was North Korea’s surprise run in England 1966, which was ended by the Eusebio-inspired Portugal in the quarterfinals. This run was surpassed by their southern neighbours in the 2002 World Cup when South Korea, playing in front of their home spectators, finished fourth. Hosting the mega event did a world’s good to Asian football and teams like South Korea, Japan and the AFC newcomers Australia were expected to feature in the latter stages of the 2010 World Cup.
Experts were of the view that the only way forward for Australian football was an FFA move to Asian Football Confederation, as playing against tougher opponents would increase the competitiveness for Australia at both International and club level. Australia joined AFC in 2006, and 2010 was the first World Cup when the Socceroos qualified through the Asian zone instead of the Oceania. Australia became one of first nations to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, winning all matches and conceding only one. However, their start in the finals was not that positive. They lost to Germany in the opening Group D match with four goals and failed to find the back of the net. Their progression past the group stage was put in further danger as Tim Cahill was shown a straight red. Australia had a better start in their second game against Ghana, and took the lead in only the tenth minute but just before half-time, Harry Kewell handed a goal-bound kick from corner to be sent off. Ghana equalised from the resulting spot kick to share the points. Australia produced their best performance of the tournament in the last group match against Serbia and won the match 2-1, but inferior goal difference to Ghana meant they could only finish third in the group table.
North Korea was the lowest ranked team in the 2010 World Cup, and they faced the top ranked Brazil in their Group G (labelled the Group of Death) opener. They gave a very stiff test to the five-time world champions, and the first half ended with no goals. The North Korean well-disciplined five-man defensive line was only beaten by Maicon’s cross-shot. Koreans were soon two goals down before a consolation goal came late in the match. Their second match against Portugal went into tournament record books for the wrong reasons. They were on wrong end of the 7-0 score-line which remained the highest goal scoring match of the tournament. North Korea suffered the third consecutive defeat of their campaign against Ivory Coast by 3-0.
Japan kicked off Group E with a one-nil victory over Cameroon. It was first being considered a minor shock, but Japan showed that even against the tougher teams (like the Netherlands) they could play without any fear and cause some troubles. Japan suffered a close 1-0 defeat to the Dutch but, through the Keisuke Honda inspiration, won the last group match against Denmark by 3-1 to finish the group in second position. Japan faced Paraguay in the Round of 16 where 120 minutes of open play could not produce a goal and the match went to penalty shootout. Yuichi Komano missed the only penalty to end the Japanese quest for the quarter-final place.
South Korea were placed in a tough Group B with favourites Argentina and two strong teams like Nigeria and Greece, who were all looking to qualify for the second stage of the World Cup. South Korea started their campaign well and won the opening match against Greece 2-0. However, their performance went down thereafter, as they lost to Argentina 4-1 and then just managed to get a 2-2 draw with Nigeria to end on second position. In their round of 16 encounter, Uruguay took an early lead through Luis Suarez. The Korean side fought back to equalise in the second half through Lee Chung-Yong, but the second goal from Suarez ended South Korea’s run in the tournament.
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