Japan and South Korea have been out one after another, and there is no East Asian team in the final of this Asian Cup, can Jordan "go black to the end"?
On the evening of February 6, local time, in the first meeting of the semifinals of the 18th Asian Cup in the early morning of the 7th, Beijing time, the Jordan team, which is now ranked 87th in the world and 13th in Asia, eliminated the favorite 2-0 by virtue of two counterattacks in the second half, and the South Korean team, which is now ranked 23rd in the world and 3rd in Asia, advanced to the final for the first time. This is also the biggest upset since the start of this event. This is also the second time that an East Asian team has missed the Asian Cup final since the 14th tournament in 2007. Such a result undoubtedly sent a serious warning to the Japanese team and the South Korean team, both of which sang the slogan of winning the championship in a high-profile manner before the opening of this cup and aspired to become a world powerhouse.
With Japan being eliminated by Iran in the quarter-finals, South Korea became the only East Asian team to reach the top four of this Asian Cup. In the semi-finals, they once again met one of their group stage opponents, Jordan. If you look at the strength of the players on both sides, the international match record and the international ranking, the South Korean team is undoubtedly the side favored by the outside world to win.
However, before reaching the semi-finals, the South Korean team eliminated the seeded Saudi Arabia team and the Australian team in the 1/8 finals and 1/4 finals respectively at the cost of playing 120 minutes in a row. In both games, they conceded first, then equalised and then came back from behind to win on penalties or in extra-time. As the AFC commented, "In the round of 16 and the round of 8, the Korean team is too much attrition. And as the team's most important defensive stalwt, Kim Min-jae had to miss the semi-finals due to the accumulation of yellow cards, so the Korean team is far more tired than the opponent......
It is understood that after the 1/4 finals, as one of the team's "running to death" representatives, Li Gangren, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain Club, was once absent from the joint training of the South Korean team. In this semi-final, the "MVP" of the World Youth Championship was obviously weak, and the captain Son Xingmin, who turned the tide and saved the team in the last round, was also lonely on the front line. The statistics show that at the end of the half, South Korea did not have a single shot on goal that could be on target within the opponent's goal frame.
After withstanding the siege of the South Korean team, the Jordan team fought back vigorously. Nimath and Tamari counter-attacked in the 53rd and 66th minutes in almost the same way. The South Korean team, which was too pressed on offense, could only watch the opponent's two attackers use their personal abilities to smash the dragon gate without the support of Kim Minjae's defensive speed. The score remained 2-0 until the end.
In terms of results, the Jordanian team, which entered the main match of the Asian Cup for the fifth time, eliminated one of the favorites South Korea and entered the final for the first time in history, which undoubtedly created the biggest upset since the start of the Asian Cup. However, a closer analysis of the course of the game between the two teams will show that there is no lack of inevitability. For example, after South Korea defeated Bahrain 3-1 in the first round of the group stage, they failed to lead their opponents in the regular 90 minutes of play time (including stoppage time) in all the subsequent games, including a 2-2 draw with Jordan and a 3-3 draw with Malaysia in the group stage. Like Japan, South Korea have conceded goals in the six games they have played. Jordan, on the other hand, beat Malaysia by four goals in the group stage, and did not concede a goal against Tajikistan in the quarter-finals and South Korea in the semi-finals.
After the match between Jordan and South Korea, the AFC reported on the game on the headline of its official website with the headline "Super Jordan defeated South Korea to reach the final". The AFC believes that Jordan is a strong team at both the offensive and defensive ends, and they deserve a ticket to the final.
With the Japanese team and the South Korean team losing the quarterfinals and semifinals one after another, there will be no East Asian team in the final of this Asian Cup, which is the first time in the championship competition of the last four Asian Cups. The data shows that since the 2007 Asian Cup Iraq team and Saudi Arabia team both met in the finals, the top two East Asian teams have advanced to the finals in 2011 (Japan), 2015 (South Korea), and 2019 (Japan). However, in the last two tournaments, only one East Asian team has made it to the top four.
It has to be said that the Japanese and South Korean teams have been out one after another, on the one hand, it is related to their own unsatisfactory performance, and on the other hand, it is also related to their excessive high profile, which has attracted other powers, especially the brigades in the West Asia region, to besiege them. If Japan's technical flow was broken up by the high-pressing style of the two Iranian teams, then South Korea's defeat was damaged by their over-reliance on individual star players. When Son Heung-min and Lee Gang-in were continuously given special care by the opponent's defenders and Kim Min-jae was suspended, the quality of the South Korean team's offensive and defensive transitions became significantly low, and it was not surprising that the opponent successfully counterattacked.
After the Jordanian team made a historic advance to the final, all parties, including the AFC, couldn't help but ask, "Can the Jordanian team 'go black to the end'?" In any case, they have won the respect of the Asian powers, and it is bound to attract the attention of future opponents in the final. There is also reason to believe that such a Jordanian team will not make this Asian Cup final uneventful.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Yun