We do have a better goal keeper but the South Korean team is very strong across the park except like us up front and even then they have a player scoring goals (not too many though) for Monaco and they only just had a 27 match unbeaten streak ended. The 27 matches unbeaten to me suggests their ranking is not a fair indication of their results.
It’s not just the results of one friendly they are a very good team. South Africa will be the proof I guess and if they don’t make the second round then I will wave the white flag.

Both teams qualified first in their group. You can’t do better than that.

It then comes down to rankings vs the friendly result and given the 27 game unbeaten streak I think it would be unfair to put too much steed in Koreas poor ranking.

The argument about South Korea playing teams from Europe is piffle … if they measured up against those teams (as Australia has in analogous fixtures), then their world ranking would reflect it (as Australia’s does).

The argument about South Korea having a tougher group for WC qualifying is at first appealing, but then how does one explain that it was actually the team from Australia’s group that won the play-off between the third-placed teams?

Also, the difficulty of one’s opponents in WC qualification matches is taken into account in world rankings.

Sure, the rankings system is not perfect, but it’s not so imperfect that team 52 (South Korea) is actually better than team 21 (Australia).

On a related note, it always amazes me the number of Socceroo fans who want to downplay whatever the team achieves. That is basically the argument you are putting forward: “Well we qualified very strongly for the World Cup, and we got as high as 14 in the world rankings, but that’s all pretty meaningless in comparison to losing a friendly in South Korea”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not having a go at you. But I guess this is what is meant by the term “death-riding”, which is what I constantly hear from passionate All Blacks fans around me … no matter what their team achieves, they are always trying to downplay it, and demand better, and say it wasn’t really good enough, and so on. Wake up and smell the roses with the Socceroos, because it ain’t always going to be this good!

South Korea were already qualified for the Asian cup through their top 4 finish at the last one so rather than boost their rating by playing more Asian teams they have been playing friendlies against European and African teams….and like all awards (the Oscars come to mind) you often get them the year after you first deserve it.

Whoever does best in SA2010 is likely to get the gong next year barring a real outsider causing a big upset and qualifying for the Asian Cup

I love my Socceroos but would say South Korea deserved it this year.

This from a national FA that accused their South Korean counterparts of poisoning them after a World Cup qualifier in Seoul!

My favourite is North Korea for Federation of the Year.

One thing you do not mention, perhaps out of charity, is the award for national team of the year, which went to South Korea. Even if it’s silly, I get that Cahill, Schwarzer, etc. did not get player of the year because it excludes deeds in Europe. However when it comes to national team of the year, there can be no such rule. So presumably South Korea got the nod over Australia because they beat an under-strength Socceroo side in a meaningless (friendly) match in Seoul in September.

This surely has to be the silliest, most purely political award decision of the lot. I mean, South Korea are currently ranked 52 and they have not been above 40 since mid-2006 (see http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=kor/ranking/gender=m/index.html). On the other hand, Australia is currently 21st, they got as high as 14th this year (second-highest ever by an Asian team, behind only Japan’s 9 in early 1998), and their lowest this year was 32nd (http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=aus/ranking/gender=m/index.html). The next highest Asian team is Japan, currently in 42nd.

If the above does not amount to a no-brainer for Australia as national team of the year in Asia, then I do not know what does.

Incidentally, those FIFA pages on ranking history are really cool … and it’s not often that I hand out bouquets to FIFA!

Yasuhito Endo is undoubtedly one of the best players in Asia, but did he do enough this year to claim the award?

Statistically speaking, you’d be talking about less than 1% of the Australian Population mate – why should the press be covering it?

Mike, I really appreciate your articles on Asian football. Its an area that just doesn’t get enough attention in the mainstream press.