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Ahead of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup Finals, Taher Hijjaz has previewed all six groups and provided his predictions on how the action in Qatar will unfold.
Australia:
One of the clear favorites without a doubt for this tournament given what they did at the World Cup in Qatar 13 months ago. If their performance against Argentina was up to par, they are going to have a day at the park against Syria, Uzbekistan, and India- on paper, at least.
However, don’t write off Syria or Uzbekistan’s chances of pulling a result against the Socceroos. Graham Arnold knows the team well as he has held the post since 2018.
A strong start to their World Cup qualifying campaign against easy opponents from Australia’s viewpoint, Palestine and Bangladesh. They got the six points with eight goals scored and two clean sheets. However, that game against Palestine was a scare for Australia as the Palestinians had two great chances to score which could have given them the three points. Palestine defended superbly the entire game only conceding to a Harry Stouttar header- who is certainly going to be a problem for oppositions from set pieces in the tournament.
If Syria or Uzbekistan can do what Palestine did so don’t be surprised if the Socceroos drop points at the group stage. Mathew Ryan, Mitchell Duke, and Jackson Irvine will be the key players if Australia go on to win this cup. One disadvantage is only six players have more than 20 caps as the average caps of this squad is 16 years. Most of the squad are in based in Scotland, Belgium, and the second tiers of Germany and England. Australia do not have a player with the name recognition of Son, Mitoma, or Taremi.
Uzbekistan:
The true dark horse of this tournament and I would not be surprised if they reach the semifinals. From September 2022 until now, the team has played 16 games, 14 friendlies (8W-3D-2L) and two world cup qualifiers where they beat Turkmenistan away 3 goals to one and drew to favorites Iran 2-2. In their 14 friendlies, they managed to beat or draw teams who ranked above them such as Cameroon, Russia, Venezuela, and Mexico.
The manager Srečko Katanec has a respectable international resume as he managed Slovenia from 1998 to 2002 qualifying them for their first ever Euro in 2000 and World Cup two years later. He has also held the top job of North Macedonia from 2006 to 2009, the U.A.E. from 2009 to 2011, Slovenia (again) from 2012 to 2017, and Iraq from 2018 to 2021.
The majority of the Uzbek national team players play in the local league, and a few are based abroad, but they will be without their captain Eldor Shomurodov, who was injured whilst playing for his club Caligiari in the Italian top flight. One could argue that Group B is the group of death meaning that any tournament run will start with three tricky encounters against Australia, India, and Syria.
Syria:
One of the most experienced managers in the Asian Cup, Héctor Cúper, will be taking Syria in this challenging group. Let us start with the negatives, it will not help that their captain and talisman, Omar Al-Somah, declared his international retirement after being left off the preliminary Asian Cup squad.
An argument with the manager over the questionable tactics in their 5-0 WCQ loss. They have neutralized Pablo Sabbag, a striker in the top Peruvian division, Antonio Yakoub, a striker in the Swedish second tier, Aiham Ousou, a defender on loan from Slavia Praha to Swedish club BK Hâcken- who got knocked out of the Europa league group stage this season.
Only eight players out of the 33-men preliminary squad play in the local division, 3 of them are goalkeepers. There is undoubted quality in the squad as a result. Three players are based in Argentina, three in the UAE, and others are scattered across Asia.
On paper, it looks convincing given the players they have but even since Cúper took over, it’s a different story. Eight games, six friendlies, and two World Cup qualifiers where they lost to Japan and narrowly beat a finished North Korean team. In those friendly matches, they lost to Kuwait, ranked 136th, Vietnam, and Bahrain, the latter two being around the same level as Syria. Nusoor Qasioun managed beat Thailand and China and drew to Malaysia as well in the same time period.
In spite of the less than convincing results, the addition of the new players should mean that Syria finds a way to reverse the tide and get back to winning ways, and have a respectable Asian Cup campaign in the process
India:
Since joining as head coach in 2019, Igor Štimac’s side has seen a mixed bag of results. Most of the matches he has contested have been against teams ranked below India, ones that India have become accustomed to winning. When Štimac plays teams who have a higher ranking than India, he has struggled to record wins except against a declining Lebanon side. With two wins coming against The Cedars in 2023. One was in the Intercontinental Cup Final- a 2-0 win- and the other in the SAFF championship semifinal where they won on penalties.
The rest of the matches against higher ranked opposition have resulted in for draws and 11 losses. Moreover, their historically prolific striker Sunil Chhetri can’t be relied on as the lone goal scoring outlet as he is 39 and is getting closer to retirement day by day. All of India’s players play in the Indian league which is ranked 17th in Asia.
On top of the unconvincing results, The Blue Tigers been placed in the group of death and they will be lucky to get a point out of this group.
Predictions
About the Author:
Taher Hijjaz is an 18 year old Palestinian from Tulkarem religiously following football in Europe and Asia, especially Palestinian football. He considers himself to be the next Abdullah Ashknani.
