After two crushing defeats by Qatar and Iran, the Asian teams finally woke up in Qatar with earthquakes from Saudi Arabia and Japan.
Disappointing performance of Qatar and Iran despite being appreciated
Before the 2022 World Cup, Qatar and Iran are considered as two representatives capable of creating a surprise in the first round of the group stage.
There is reason for observers to believe this. Qatar owns the home field advantage, having just spent 200 billion USD to organize the first World Cup in the winter.
The possibility of this team losing the opening match against Ecuador is not high, especially when Qatar’s performance before the tournament is quite good. They won Guatemala, Albania, and drew even Chile. Some observers even believe that the referee will more or less favor the home team.
Iran doesn’t have a host advantage, but it does have some reason to at least not lose badly to England.
One, England performed badly in the UEFA Nations League. Two, defensive star Harry Maguire’s form is problematic. Three, Iran in the 2018 World Cup actually played great against Portugal and Spain. The ability of Iran to create a surprise is even appreciated.
It’s disappointing to see Qatar and Iran play their way. Qatar was defeated by Ecuador with a score of 0-2 in a match where the home players were underpowered and clearly showed psychological pressure. Iran was defeated by Britain with a score of 2-6; England team scored three goals before halftime. The situation is hopeless.
Negative thinking about Asian football in general came after Qatar and Iran were both eliminated. This is because both Saudi Arabia and Japan, the next two Asian teams to play, will face tough opponents Argentina and Germany, respectively, and because the two West Asian teams are judged to have the potential to do so. everything was defeated.
The earthquake called the names of Saudi Arabia and Japan
How are Argentina and Germany different from the two Asian representatives? After 15 minutes of Argentina’s match with Saudi Arabia, when Messi scored, the bookies opened the final score of the match up to 8-0.
Usually, the white difference winning scores of 5 goals or more of this type will be lumped by the bookies into a specific percentage and set the odds of winning quite low. Simply because it is too difficult for this vision to come true.
Therefore, when the bookie opens the door to bet the score up to 8-0 in favor of Argentina, it is understandable that observers in general believe in the prospect of Saudi Arabia being crushed like Iran. When the first half ended, the Betfair house even raised the rate to 500/1 (set 1 to 500) for Saudi Arabia to win the whole match.
What happened after that everyone knows. Saudi Arabia needed 6 minutes to create the first earthquake in West Asia when turning the game against Argentina and the next 40 minutes to defend resiliently. They even shed blood.
Miracles don’t usually come more than once. But luck seems to have smiled on Asia more at the 2022 World Cup. 23 hours after Argentina finished to Saudi Arabia, Germany bowed to Japan with almost the same scenario: leading from the penalty spot in the first half and lost in the second half.
The dealer’s reaction even has certain similarities. They also open winning bets up to 8-0. In the middle of the match, the odds for Japan to win the whole match as recorded by Betfair were 55/1, also very high and at a level not many people believe.
What happened next is simply making Asia’s heart flutter. Japan also only needs 9 minutes to create a miracle like Saudi Arabia. “Green Samurai” changed tactics, brought a series of stars playing in the Bundesliga to the field and punished the Germans.
Takuma Asano’s decisive goal can be seen as a mirror image of the Asian shock. The player is only 1.73 m tall and beats Nico Schlotterbeck (1.91 m tall) and beats the famous Manuel Neuer in a very tight angle.
Putting aside prejudices about odds or judgments from observers, what Saudi Arabia and Japan have done are particularly commendable.
Saudi Arabia was too brave to raise the squad high, forcing Argentina into a position that could not play the ball proactively. And Japan made Germany unable to keep up with the decision to change tactics from a defense of 4 defenders to 3 central defenders and played fair with the Germans in the second half.
The Germans in particular or the world in general are not prepared for such shocks from Asia. The World Cup is still considered not yet and likely never will be for the teams in the most populous continent in the world. But Saudi Arabia and Japan have proven that everything only makes sense once the ball has rolled.
Asia turns out to be not as weak and fragile as most observers believe.