The 'underdog' tournament
The 2023 Asian Cup will be the first tournament since 1972 to not feature one of the four teams in the final: South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia or Iran. All four heavyweights, plus Australia, have been eliminated from the race. Instead, this year’s final will be contested between Qatar and Jordan.
These details are enough to say the problem: Asian Cup 2023 is going very interesting. The two teams playing in the final are both outside the world top 50 and Asia top 5. Qatar is ranked 58th in the world, while Jordan is ranked 87th.
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With a combined ranking of 145, this is one of the Asian Cup finals between the two lowest-ranked teams in FIFA rankings history.
Qatar (red shirt) beat Iran in a spectacular score chase
One after another, championship candidates such as South Korea and Japan "fell" before teams that were rated lower. South Korea lost 0-2 to Jordan and was eliminated in the semi-finals. Japan was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Iran. Two teams that were "regular guests" of the World Cup, Australia and Saudi Arabia, also stopped before South Korea.
Uzbekistan, who are on the rise again with success in youth tournaments, also lost to Qatar in the quarterfinals on penalties. Hosts Qatar then defeated Iran, who were ranked 37 places higher in the FIFA rankings, to reach the final match.
A total of 12 teams that entered the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup could not reach the final, which is also unprecedented in the Asian Cup.
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The 2023 Asian Cup is also a match where the rule of "strong wins weak" becomes fragile. Until being eliminated, Korea only won 1 match in 90 minutes, that was a 3-1 victory over Bahrain.
Jordan (white shirt) eliminated South Korea from the game
Japan was also defeated twice, losing to Iraq and Iran with the same score of 1-2. Remember, before entering the Asian Cup, Hajimee Moriyasu and his team had won 10 consecutive matches against strong teams such as Germany, Turkey, Canada and Tunisia.
Meanwhile, Jordan won only 1 of 9 matches before the Asian Cup, but still confidently entered the final.
Ball control is no longer the ultimate weapon
The failure of teams that are good at ball possession like Japan and South Korea at the 2023 Asian Cup shows that controlling the ball is no longer a mandatory factor to win.
Jordan beat South Korea without much possession. Throughout the semi-final, the West Asian representative only had 30% possession (compared to South Korea's 70%), made 285 passes (compared to South Korea's 622), but created 17 chances, more than double their opponents (7).
Both of Jordan's goals came from pressing to win the ball and then organizing a lightning-fast counterattack. With just 2 or 3 passes, the ball was in the Korean net.
Iran also did not have much possession (42%), but still defeated Japan. Like Jordan, Iran attacked quickly, variedly and directly, not needing many passes to get the ball into the penalty area. So even though they did not really control the ball, Iran still "pocketed" a very convincing victory.
However, in the semi-final match against Qatar, Iran fell into the trap of "hitting themselves with their own petard". Possessing the ball for 59% of the time, dominating most of the time, Iran was punished by Qatar with neat, few-touch (and somewhat lucky) attacks.
Qatar's Akram Afif is excellent
Teams like Jordan and Qatar do not represent a possession-based style of play. Even in terms of playing philosophy, these two teams do not have any clear inclination.
However, the West Asian duo still reached the final thanks to core factors: tight defense, limited mistakes, quick ball circulation, choosing the right time to unleash their energy and having individuals who can decide the match (Musan Al-Taamari of Jordan and Akram Afif of Qatar).
It is not necessary to be better in the whole match or possess superior reasoning, Qatar and Jordan won thanks to their intelligence and flexibility, knowing how to hide and rise up at the right time. That is enough!
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