Best Asian team in the world cup 2018

[Roozbeh-G2006]

Football isn't the most popular sport in their country unlike the rest of Asia yet they have enjoyed more WC knockout stage appearances and Asian Cup titles than any other Asian country in the last 30 years.

Football isn't the most popular sport in Iran either.

[Babak agha]

Respect to Japan they are a real quality side. They lack a bit of discipline in the back but they are one organized team that can compete at the highest level as we all saw today. Unfortunately they just didn’t have the experience or the guidance of a top class coach that u need to stay cool in that situation.

If they had a coach with some more international experience they for sure would've had a better chance winning that game.

However it must be said that Belgium got incredibly lucky with their first goal and that they were losing all hope bit by bit. The 2-1 couldn't have come at a better time for them.
Japan would have won that game otherwise, even with their naive way of defending.

PS There is nothing worse than trying to bring others down so that you could be on the same level as them. Admire other people's achievement and try to achieve the maximum yourself, whatever that may be.

[DR Strangemoosh]

Guys this Japan team was the culmination of a generation the spine of which is all in the 29-30 age range. Some of these guys first came to prominence around the 2010 world cup time when Japan was again unlucky to go out in the 2nd round on penalties.

Again, they've done Asia proud with this performance.

However, Japan will need to build a new team after this as 33-34 is too old for the bulk of a team for Qatar. To compare ourselves with them though, our team is a lot younger and even in 4 years time will be younger than what these guys are now. If CQ can stay and continue to foster our young players as well as bringing new ones in, then who knows what can happen.

[parisian homie]

Based on the Asian Cup we're likely to play against Japan before the final (provided we finish top of our group and they do too).

If everything goes normal, you'd have Iran, Australia and Japan one side of the draw and UAE, KSA, SK on the other side.

[versusdamon]

Japan has been playing organised and disciplined football for at least two decades. Is this all they can do? and with a little help from their friends in the West too? No sanctions, plenty of encouragements, loads of good talks from all commentators, all doors open to them, all top clubs welcome them, all top teams play friendlies with them. The list of advantages goes on and on. And yet the best they can do is just get passed the group stages in a weak group. Yeah sure if Japan is the best team in Asia then Asian football is really shite.

Someone told me that world football is competetive and results not always reflect the ground truth and sometimes you just need a little bit of luck. Japan were very close to the quarter finals two times; the first time their quarter-final competition would have been Senegal, so reaching the semis wouldnt have been surprising - South Korea actually cheated their way into the semis.

What are you trying to prove? I hate this shittalking about other nations -what is your point, that Iranians are genetically superior to Japanese? Then just say it, but stop this embarassing nonsense.

[GolfePersique]

^ Thank goodness. I'd rather avoid the Arab teams untill the final(hopefully none will make it) as AFC will make sure to create trouble for us.
The sweetest thing would be defeating both Aussies and Japan en route!

[CAGE]

Definetly Saudi Arabia..

[bozghaleh]

What I love about japan is their pass accuracy and fluidity. They could have easily defeated Belgium if their coach knew a little about Tactics 101. The announcers were so happy Japan was playing attacking football when they were ahead 2-0, and I kept thinking why are they not starting to dropback and defend with 20 min left? I haven't seen all their games but the announcer said they play the same starting 11 all the time for all 4 matches, which again shows lack of tactical knowledge. I am sorry but Japan is no Brazil or top team where they can dictate their style of play all the time. Anyway, I hope they play the same against us in the Asian Cup so Querioz can teach them a thing or 2 about tactics.

[arash123]

What I love about japan is their pass accuracy and fluidity. They could have easily defeated Belgium if their coach knew a little about Tactics 101. The announcers were so happy Japan was playing attacking football when they were ahead 2-0, and I kept thinking why are they not starting to dropback and defend with 20 min left? I haven't seen all their games but the announcer said they play the same starting 11 all the time for all 4 matches, which again shows lack of tactical knowledge. I am sorry but Japan is no Brazil or top team where they can dictate their style of play all the time. Anyway, I hope they play the same against us in the Asian Cup so Querioz can teach them a thing or 2 about tactics.

I'm pretty sure they rested a lot of their regular players vs Poland.

[hasan]

Japan much better offensively than Iran
Iran much better defensively than japan.

[milad_b]

Based on the Asian Cup we're likely to play against Japan before the final (provided we finish top of our group and they do too).

If everything goes normal, you'd have Iran, Australia and Japan one side of the draw and UAE, KSA, SK on the other side.

I doubt saudi can top their group. I think qatar with zidane and the fact that they have world cup in their country are gonna top the group. Most likely we'll see Japan vs Saudi and australia against an arab team. The chances that we meet an arab team in semi-final is not that low.

Looking at the world cup this year nothing can be predicted ! Who would've thought australia drawing against Thailand and Iraq in world cup qualifications !

[Pedram123]

Iran the best team in asia overall atm imo - of course Japan is better in some areas. In the past Japan and S.Korea were the best though. A combination of their downfall and our "upfall" I can call us the best team in Asia. I didn't think of that pre-world cup but there were some surprise performances that made me re-evaluate - If we are on point in the AC we will win it.
I am pretty sad about Gucci retiring and hope azmoun doesnt retire either. With the ebhraimi-ezatollahi combo we are the favorites to win the AC, if injuries or other crap dont happen.

[eerooni]

All this depends if we have CQ sitting on our bench until behind Asia Cup, right now, hes still undecided about the ( crappy ) 6 month extension!!

[GoIran]

My heart says Iran>Japan, my head says Japan>Iran. I just can't imagine we cope with powerhouses like Belgium with attacking football. Japan has many top 5 league starters and we have none. If we meet them in the AC, treat them like Spain or Portugal. If we play open football, they will rape us.

[Pedram123]

They threw a 2-0 lead - They let 3 goals in - They are better than us in some areas but as a team and tactically we are better.

My heart says Iran>Japan, my head says Japan>Iran. I just can't imagine we cope with powerhouses like Belgium with attacking football. Japan has many top 5 league starters and we have none. If we meet them in the AC, treat them like Spain or Portugal. If we play open football, they will rape us.