So far, there are only 4 teams left in the Asian Cup. It can be said that these 4 teams are the 4 most successful teams in the Asian Cup so far, after all, competitive sports speak with results, and all the teams that stand outside the top four now have no right to speak, whether you are Japan or Australia, there is nothing to say.
Iran, Jordan, Qatar, South Korea, each team's journey to the semi-finals is different, and the difficulty is also different, among them, the most difficult is South Korea. South Korea met Saudi Arabia and Australia in the two stages of 16 into 8 and 8 into 4 respectively, and both played overtime, both in terms of the difficulty of the game and the intensity of the game, South Korea has experienced two purgatory-like tests, of course, also gained a lot of good luck. However, South Korea's operation in the group stage is now ridiculous. In the last round, South Korea was drawn 3:3 by Malaysia. Although South Korea, from the players to the coach, will not admit anything, but there seems to be no bug in everyone's speculation, and South Korea most likely wants to avoid Japan.
Of course, there is no point in talking about this now, after all, South Korea has already reached the semi-finals. Interestingly, South Korea managed to avoid Japan, but it welcomed Saudi Arabia and Australia behind. Although they passed, these two opponents may be more difficult to fight than Japan. Therefore, South Korea's operation has even increased the difficulty of its own promotion.
In fact, in this regard, it is Jordan that is really able to operate with ease in this Asian Cup. It can be said that Jordan can be called the team that can play the most in the Asian Cup, and compared with their operation, South Korea is weak to avoid Malaysia and Japan.
In terms of strength, Jordan may not have the strength of the semi-finals of the Asian Cup, in fact, they have met Iraq and Tajikistan in the two knockout rounds, and the two opponents are not too strong teams, at least, Japan, Iran and other super teams, they have not met. And the focus is on Iraq, and we can see how Jordan is involved in Iraq. First of all, in the first round of the group stage, Jordan easily defeated Malaysia 4:0, which is very understandable, because there was no upset in the Asian Cup at that time, so Jordan had to try its best to compete for the first place in the group, so as to avoid strong teams with a high probability;
In the second round, there was a change, and Iraq actually beat Japan in an upset. At this time, Jordan may have foreseen that Japan may not be able to win the first place in the group, so if it goes to win the group itself, it may run into Japan. In addition, in Group D, in addition to Iraq and Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia are relatively weak, so Iraq will not lose to Vietnam after two consecutive wins. In other words, Iraq is likely to be the first place in the group.
In this case, if Jordan advances from the group, it is the safest to meet Iraq. Therefore, their ideal ranking is to finish third in the group. From this point of view, a draw with South Korea is the most ideal result, so that you can adjust your results according to the results of the third round of Group D.
Sure enough, Iraq won three games and won the first place in the group. Based on this result, Jordan locked in the goal of finishing third in the group, and their operation was to lose to Bahrain in the final round. In fact, in this group, except for Malaysia, Bahrain is the weakest, but in the end, Bahrain won the first place in the group, and then stupidly went to meet Japan. Jordan, on the other hand, not only ran into Iraq as it wished, but also took it into a relatively easy half of the zone. After reaching the quarterfinals, both Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates are at least easier to deal with than Japan, South Korea, Iran, and Australia, right? And fate favored Jordan so much that it actually arranged for Tajikistan to cause an upset and meet Jordan. As a result, eight into four, Jordan met the least experienced opponent in the Asian Cup.
From the group stage to the semi-finals, we can feel that Jordan is so calm, although they may not be very strong, but they are too good at playing, or rather, the strategy of the game is too clever. Compared with them, South Korea's hiding from Japan is not only embarrassing, but also completely unnecessary. And it is worth mentioning that perhaps only a second-rate Asian team like Jordan can carry out relevant operations with impunity. In fact, if South Korea loses to Malaysia in the final round, then they also have a chance to finish third in the group, but in that case, Son Heung-min may be drowned out by the saliva of South Korean fans and public opinion around the world. As a strong team in Asia, their operation cannot be overdone.