Asian Cup Matchday Review (Final)

It’s been a great month of action in Australia, as the hosts prospered to their first continental title at the third time of asking since their reversion of territories to the AFC. Their performance capped a mainly fault free tournament which saw them finish the campaign as the tournament’s top scorers, with more individual goal scorers than anyone could’ve predicted. The Asian Cup finished with UAE taking bronze medal over Iraq, but it was in Sydney where the real treat was on display. Here’s my final look on proceedings in Australia, looking back over the Australia-Korea Republic final.

The Player

When you consider the likes of Bayer Leverkusen’s Son Heung-Min were in attendance, before the tournament you may have been surprised to hear that a player playing in the 3rd tier of English football would scoop the honour for MVP at the Asian Cup. Swindon Town’s Massimo Luongo looks to be much more than a flash in the pan however, after a thoroughly successful tournament that finished with him opening the scoring in Saturday’s final victory over Korea Republic.

His influence in a squad mainly based on Postecoglou’s first major selection ahead of the World Cup is growing with every match, most impressively in the semi-final victory over the UAE. However, it was in the final where his greatest moment came, unleashing an unstoppable effort just before half time, setting the Australians up for their historic first Asian Cup victory in their home event.

Australia’s sudden turnaround has been tipped for a while now by Postecoglou, however the inclusion of Massimo Luongo in his midfield trio could well have been argued as the key piece missing to the Socceroo side. His dynamism is something Australia have struggled to harness, differing to the often one dimensionial Mile Jedinak and the ageing legs of Mark Bresciano. His transitional influence between defence and attack has given the Australians extra speed on the counter that had been neglected before. The young man continues to stress that he has unfinished business to exercise at Swindon, but come the summer calls will grow ever louder for him to make the step up to the top table.

The Team

Australia’s triumph in Sydney will go down in history as the first trophy won by the nation since they moved to the AFC, but more importantly it will achieve much more outside the record books after Ange Postecoglou steered a side who had only won 2 matches in a year into a continental champion outfit. The turnaround was long muted by the analytical coach, but the way in which it was executed was impressive from start to finish.

The final itself put to bed one of Australia’s most prominent demons, by beating similar ranked Asian nations. After losing quite comprehensively to Japan prior to the tournament, a group stage reverse to the Koreans lead many to worry that the Socceroos would struggle. A confident display against UAE in the semis was replicated against the Koreans in Sydney’s final. They’d learnt from the mistakes last time around against Korea, as they kept their heads and waited for the right openings.

It was roles reversed as Australia went ahead against the run of play and were unlucky to concede late on to force it into extra time. Troisi’s extra time winner will breed excitement and engagement in the country, something that can be coupled with domestic club Western Sydney Wanderers achieving the same continental feat on the club circuit. Whle Australia grows, the rest of Asia looks on enviously. West Asia in particular haven’t been shy in coming forward, complaining that they haven’t gained anything since Australia switched regions. Standards however have improved in the region, even in the short space of time since Postecoglou took charge. A promising future can be expected for the whole continent, not just in Australia.

The Talking Point

One of the stand out stories of the Asian Cup, was the vast improvement of Korea Republic since their humiliating World Cup exit 6 months prior. Incoming German coach Uli Stielike has developed a well drilled outfit, that might have restricted some of their individual flair, but has strengthened considerabily their defensive core, helping them to a record equalling 5 successive clean sheets on route to the final.

Question marks however are left after a disappointing final, where Stielike seemed to overplay the game in his mind even before it had kicked off. His team selection seemed baffling, assumingly more concerned with Australia’s threats, than his own teams attacking blend; he opted to play with 3 centre backs from the start and moved out one of their players of the tournament Park Joo-Ho into a wide role after excelling as an anchor midfielder earlier in the cup. In the end it didn’t pay off, for all that was good about Korea previously evaporated in an instance. Without conceding for the whole tournament, Korea looked continually suseptable in defence and dually conceded twice over the 120 minutes.

Going forward, Stielike will look back at a generally successful campaign which only lacked a killer final performance. Defensively they have come on leaps and bounds since the shambles of Brazil, and in attack they may have come up with a number 9 that can stretch them forward into 2015. Lee Jeong-Hyeop’s performances given the lack of experience domestically were quite impressive, but he will have to be given time to blossom after a pretty anonymous final display. With Japan parting company with Aguirre and Iran seeing a battle between Queiroz and the IFF, Korea will sit back with a content smile on their face after such low expectations coming into the tournament.