November 15, 2022 Overcast
Today's duty: Dai Zhen Wang Lingxuan
Moment Night Talk No. 34
Editor's note: The 2022 Qatar Football World Cup is about to begin, and as the last World Cup with 32 teams to participate, fans around the world will focus on Qatar. National teams from all over the world will gather here to compete for the quadrennial Hercules Cup. The night talk will start on November 15 for everyone to take stock of the teams that entered the final circle of this World Cup, and the football powerhouses will be promoted to see who will spend the Hercules Cup.
Today brings the Asian teams of this cup, they are the hosts Qatar, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Australia (Australia). It was also the first time in the history of the World Cup that six Asian teams appeared.
Qatari player Ali
"Host" Qatar
This World Cup makes Qatar the third Asian country to host the World Cup after Japan and South Korea, the first Middle East country to host it, and the first host country to never qualify for the World Cup finals since World War II.
As the first World Cup finalist, Qatar ranks second to last in the world out of 32 teams, only higher than Ghana, for many people, is not very optimistic about the performance of the host in this cup, although the same group of teams is only a strong team that fans are familiar with, but Ecuador and Sergar are both strong teams from Africa, for Qatar, which is all from the West Asian league, getting points seems to be their more realistic goal in this World Cup.
Iranian player Jahanbakhsh
"Persian iron ride" Iran
When it comes to the Iranian football team, old fans will not be unfamiliar, Iran is ranked 21st in the world, the highest ranking among Asian teams, although Iran is a traditional team in Asia, but in the past 20 years in the World Cup Iran has only won one victory, such results for the Asian leader Iran is really difficult to satisfy. In this cup, Iran is in the same group as England, Wales and the United States, and the other two teams in this group are similar to Iran's, except for England's traditional powerhouse, and Iran seems to be the Asian team with more hope of reaching the second round than the other five Asian teams.
Coupled with international political reasons, the second showdown between Iran and the United States in this group will certainly attract the attention of the world, and the two teams narrowly defeated the United States 2-1 in the last meeting of the 1998 World Cup, and it is interesting to see what kind of showdown the two teams will play this time.
Australian player Mooy
"Football Kangaroo" Australia
Australia officially joined the AFC through the 10th AFC Executive Committee meeting in 2005, as the first place in the Oceania World Cup qualifiers had to be contested by a South American team to qualify for the World Cup finals. At the same time, the AFC has more places.
Australia's best result before this was to reach the second round of the 2006 World Cup, this time Australia reached the final for the fifth time in a row, in this cup, Australia is the lowest ranking in the world in the group, in addition to the defending champion France in the same group, Denmark and Tunisia, because France is likely to take a qualifying place, then Australia wants to qualify if Denmark or Tunisia need to play the best in every game to fight down, but every game is crucial.
Japanese player Takumi Minamino
"Blue Samurai" Japan
As an Asian powerhouse, Japan began the professional reform of football very early, and in 1998, the World Cup in France entered the main stage of the World Cup for the first time, and since then, Japan has not missed any World Cup main match.
Japan's current best World Cup result is the round of 16, in 2002, 2010 and 2018, but the start of this World Cup Japan team can be described as hell difficulty, in the same group of E Japan will face the championship Germany and Spain, even the most humble Costa Rica is also "hard stubble" defensively. From the expression on the face of head coach Morihoichi at the moment of the draw, you know how difficult such a group can be to play.
But the strength of the Japanese team on paper cannot be underestimated. In the 26-man squad, 20 are from European clubs, of which the starting 11 are the five major league lineups that can be ranked 10, including players like Takumi Minamino and Daichi Kamata who have won the Premier League and the Europa League. The overall style of the Japanese team is similar to the Spanish style, which is mainly based on passing control and ground coordination, and the master-apprentice battle with Spain is also very interesting.
South Korean player Son Heung-min
"Taiji Tiger" Korea
South Korea's participation in the World Cup dates back to 1954, making it the second Asian group team to reach the World Cup after Indonesia. They have produced a large number of Asian first-line stars in the World Cup, from Cha Beom-geun, Park Ji-sung to now Son Heung-min, the strength of Korean football in Asia is unquestionable.
South Korea's best World Cup result so far was the last four in 2002, although it is known that this was achieved with the help of the referee's "football friendship". In that World Cup knockout round, South Korea defeated Italy, who then won the championship in 2006, in the 1/8 knockout round, and defeated Spain, which had a large number of rising stars, in the 1/4 knockout round, which is their World Cup impressive record. Subsequently, the Korean players said goodbye to the stage of Serie A and La Liga for a long time.
Although this Korean team only has 7 players in Europe, it is not afraid of any defense because of the presence of Premier League Golden Boot player Son Heung-min. The Group H they are placed in is arguably the closest group, Portugal and Uruguay in the same group are declining in strength as core players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Suya get older, and Ghana's new generation is not yet mature, so the prospect of South Korea's qualification is worth looking forward to.
Saudi Arabia player Yahya Shehri
"Desert Green Eagle" Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia first played in the World Cup in 1994 and was never absent until the 2006 World Cup in Germany. After a brief slump, the Saudi national team returned to the World Cup in 2018. Saudi Arabia's best performance on the international stage was the 1989 U17 World Junior Championship, and the number of Asian Cup wins is only slightly behind Japan's four-time victory, so it is no exaggeration to call Saudi Arabia a traditional Asian powerhouse.
But in the performance of the World Cup, Saudi Arabia has always existed like a sandbag. After their first World Cup performance, they left an embarrassing record of a hard win, and even lost 8-0 to Germany and 0-5 to Russia.
Saudi Arabia is divided into Group C, with Argentina, Mexico, Poland in a group, in front of a large number of players from the five major leagues and even world-famous stars in front of the team, Saudi Arabia's local giants Riyadh Crescent based on the squad is a little thin, I am afraid that it can only rely on the cooperation cultivated by long-term actual combat between players. The Saudi team can only qualify if it breaks the cauldron.
(Produced by Red Network Burning Youth Studio)