Best Asian team in the world cup 2018

[GolfePersique]

4 out of 5 AFC teams have already been eliminated with Japan having a big chance of advancing to the round of last 16.

How would you objectively rate the performance of the Asian teams this time?

In my opinion, Iran had the hardest possible opponents among all Asian teams, gave both Spain and Portugal (top 5 teams in the world, quality wise, if not the best) a hard time and achieved excellent results.

Japan have played a beautiful football and achieved great results. However the equation might have been totally different, had Columbia not played with 10 players for almost 90 minutes.
Aussies played decent football, but didn't seem to menace any of the teams in their group. Finished with 1 point only.
Saudis were a total disgrace to Asian football and had nothing to do in this world cup.

Update:
South Korea had an reasonable performance in a tough group, but nothing impressive in the first two games, but what a performance against Germany!

Overall Asia remains miles behind the international football.

[ramingeles2000]

Japan is still technically ahead of us and plays positive attacking football. Both they and the aussies could trouble us in the asian cup. but frankly i believe that out of 10 matches, we win 5, draw 3, lose 2 against both these sides.

[milad_b]

I think we can beat japan but I still think they play better and much more beautiful football than us !
Honestly i was surprised at the way they played against senegal! Senegali players couldn't keep up with the japs at the end of the game and they meant to be physically stronger !

They can pass the ball
They have few good finishers
They have fast pace players
They can create many chances in their game


Japan's High Level is all due to the world cup in their country ! If we have a world cup in our country surely we will play a lot better than any asian team.

[Doctor DOOM]

4 out of 5 AFC teams have already been eliminated with Japan having a big chance of advancing to the round of last 16.
How would you objectively rate the performance of the Asian teams this time?
In my opinion, Iran had the hardest possible opponents among all Asian teams, gave both Spain and Portugal (top 5 teams in the world, quality wise, if not the best) a hard time and achieved excellent results.
Japan have played a beautiful football and achieved great results. However the equation might have been totally different, had Columbia not played with 10 players for almost 90 minutes.
Aussies played decent football, but didn't seem to menace any of the teams in their group. Finished with 1 point only.
Saudis were a total disgrace to Asian football and had nothing to do in this world cup.
Overall Asia remains miles behind the international football.

lol. .... south korea ham ke aslan adam nist, pas hesab nemishan, .. right?


aussies can go f**k themselves silly for all I care. stupid turds.


Japan may advance and all the power to them.
they were gifted a comparatively easier group and I really hope they make it count and advance.
That's only good for asia.

We've turned some heads, especially in the last game.
So I'm gonna say us two teams only

[Keano]

My bias had me pick Iran, however based on results only, Japan has thus far slightly done better than us, almost advancing to the next round. They also have so far seemed to have played a more smooth football than ours. Not sure if it's due to the magnitude of the opponents power or their fresh style of footballing.

Nonetheless Iran sarvare Asiast!

[Keano]

lol. .... south korea ham ke aslan adam nist, pas hesab nemishan, .. right?




Japan may advance and all the power to them.
they were gifted a comparatively easier group and I really hope they make it count and advance.
That's only good for asia.

We've turned some heads, especially in the last game.
So I'm gonna say us two teams only

On top of it, the Colombian player's red card on the 3rd minute of the match totally dismantled Colombia, giving the Japanese the edge and one man up advantage. Otherwise I guarantee in a normal day, a full squad Colombia will crush Japan.

[Tehranto]

On top of it, the Colombian player's red card on the 3rd minute of the match totally dismantled Colombia, giving the Japanese the edge and one man up advantage. Otherwise I guarantee in a normal day, a full squad Colombia will crush Japan.

Huge caveat.

[peiman92]

My bias had me pick Iran, however based on results only, Japan has thus far slightly done better than us, almost advancing to the next round. They also have so far seemed to have played a more smooth football than ours. Not sure if it's due to the magnitude of the opponents power or their fresh style of footballing.

Nonetheless Iran sarvare Asiast!

I agree with you that we have been the best in terms of results, but not in overall play! We can never know how Japan would play in our group but i’m very certain we would have played like we did in their group! Lol

[GolfePersique]

lol. .... south korea ham ke aslan adam nist, pas hesab nemishan, .. right?


aussies can go f**k themselves silly for all I care. stupid turds.


Japan may advance and all the power to them.
they were gifted a comparatively easier group and I really hope they make it count and advance.
That's only good for asia.

We've turned some heads, especially in the last game.
So I'm gonna say us two teams only

Hahaha.

Probably I couldn't see their remnants after demolition by Team Melli!

[shahabGAOL]

Ofcourse it is IRAN everybody knows it! We had a great World Cup! In Russia. We just not was lucky to beat Portugal and Taremi had to made it 2:1 in the last seconds! What would that change the World Cup for us. We perform good after meany years and this is just tge begin and not the last one because CQ going to stay untill the World Cup 2022 and it will be he's 3th World Cup with Iran and hope we got a good team.

My german collegue telling me by next World Cup Iran will even be stronger and he told me that our young 17 sqaud will be then playing for Iran and all of them they are the best he told. They all are Champions so Carlos Queiroz can use them! I think he is right.

Iran did it great and all in my work they are so suprised about the Iranian team and I remember before the start of this World Cup they all said Iran has no chance! Everybody talking positief about Iran thanks to Carlos Queiroz!

[teammelli91]

I vote for Iran, but we should wait until after Japan exits the World Cup. Who knows, maybe they’ll get far in this tournament.

Japan was in a relatively easier group than ours but let’s wait and see what happens.

[ramingeles2000]

I think we can beat japan but I still think they play better and much more beautiful football than us !
Honestly i was surprised at the way they played against senegal! Senegali players couldn't keep up with the japs at the end of the game and they meant to be physically stronger !

They can pass the ball
They have few good finishers
They have fast pace players
They can create many chances in their game


Japan's High Level is all due to the world cup in their country ! If we have a world cup in our country surely we will play a lot better than any asian team.

PFDC should love this....on my flight from St Petersburg to Kazan, i shared a plane ride with the japan youth team head coach, who is also one of the technical directors of the JFA (their entire staff were on my flight to Kazan, where the japanese team were based). I picked his brain for over an hour about all things football asia, iran, japan. he was incredibly knowledgeable - used to coach a team in the J League and knew Afshin Ghotbi and Carlos Quieroz personally. he smirked when i asked him about Ghotbi LOL.

The Japanese are so incredibly ahead of us in their planning...it's breathtaking what they've done, from having NO professional league in 1993 to being where they are now. Some very interesting points he shared:

-Ability to adapt to european language and culture is incredibly important for a player's ability to make it in europe. it's not about talent alone - it's about maturity to adapt. See case in point Mahdavikia and Jahanbakhsh, both of whom learned German/Dutch/English perfectly. Also look at Hashemian, a player who wasn't as talented as, say, Ali Karimi or Sardar but had a wonderful European career because he was a true professional

-He said the Japanese U-19 player "Kubo" is going to be the best player in Japanese history. He started with Barcelona youth teams but had to come back to Japan because of FIFA rules

-I asked him the million dollar PFDC question of "why don't iranians get picked up by big european clubs"? His answer was fascinating. He said that part of the reason japanese players have so much success going abroad is because most of them have HUGE existing sponsorship deals in Japan (and the clubs get a % of this), and the euro club teams get a piece of this. in addition, there are huge merchandise and TV rights opportunities for these clubs in Japan once they pick up a japanese player. So the club potentially stand to make money off the japanese player whether they succeed or not. He said that he didn't think iranian players presented the same $ potential for these clubs because of all of our problems.

-I asked him whether he thought Japan's efforts to become a football superpower had paid off as expected. he said that they had succeeded in producing world-class technical MIDFIELDERS. but he said that Japanese culture's focus on teamwork and selflessness really hurt them when it came to producing true forwards. He said that being a forward requires an ego, a selfishness to want to score, and that this isn't a feature of japanese culture. he also mentioned that their goalies aren't big enough (he said that half the J-League starting goalies are Koreans or other foreigners who are larger) and that they have the same issue with defenders...he said japanese players mature physically later on and by the time they've reached physical maturity (20-21) it's a bit late for them to go to Europe. I mentioned that we don't have this "ego" problem in iran, which is why we're so good on set pieces - all of our defenders are ex forwards, LOL.

-i asked why South Korea had gone downhill. He said the KFA is having major financial issues / no support from the government.

-he said japanese players rebelled under the last coach (Vahid) because he looked and talked down to the japanese players, and that the players are playing much harder under the new japanese coach.

-he said J League is exploding in popularity.

-when i asked him what his expectations were for Japan (this was before their colombia game) he said that they should go through with Colombia. He was so confident...he said the country fully expected them to go through. The Japanese really don't see themselves as below Senegal, Colombia or Poland. They have a ton of confidence.

-he said CQ has done a great job and that iran are very organized. he said our team lacks stars like in the past (other than azmoun, who he admired) and that it's helped us buy into a team concept.

I think this poor guy wanted to jump off the plane, i was interrogating him the entire time lol.

[Ghormeh Sabzi]

Japan, they are still far ahead of our football. But now we are catching up with 3 steps forward and one step back as suppose to one step forward and one step back.

[Kaveh Ahangar]

Japan are a good side and we wish them well in the tournament.
However, they were fortunate to be placed in a shockingly easy group.

[Azeem98]

Competition wise:
1- Iran
2- Australia
3- Japan
4- Korea
5- KSA

But Japan plays football which is beautifull to watch and easy on the eye so this gives them a big edge.