“There is still a lot of cynicism, and misinformation, when it comes to Qatar, but this side of mostly home-grown talent can go a long way to silencing the critics in the UAE.”
This was my analysis of Qatar in my series of pre-tournament previews.
After their historic 3-1 win over Japan in the final, the critics have been well and truly silenced.
While they weren’t my pre-tournament prediction to win – that was South Korea – anyone who knew anything about Asian football knew this moment was coming for this team as far back as 2014, when they were crowned AFC U19 champions.
That squad featured the likes of Akram Afif, Almoez Ali, Tarek Salman, Saleem al-Hajri and Tameem al-Muhaza. All five were part of the squad that just created history by winning Qatar’s first Asian Cup.
Two years later, at the 2016 AFC U23 Championships, Qatar made it to the semi-finals before losing to South Korea. Ten of that squad, which had an average age of just 20 (including 11 aged 19 or under), went on to make the 23-man squad for this tournament.
Then last year, the majority of that same team backed it up again with another semi-final appearance at the 2018 AFC U23 Championships, from which nine players were named for this year’s Asian Cup.
And throughout it all there has been one constant – Spanish coach Felix Sanchez.
The former Barcelona academy coach, appointed by the renowned Aspire Academy in 2006, before taking on the job as U19 national team coach in 2013, has been there every step of the way with this team. This is very much his team, and that is evident in the bond between Sanchez and his players.
When you track the progress of this side, that they won this Asian Cup should come as no surprise. And yet surprise has been the overriding emotion that has greeted their success, especially here in Australia.
I wanted to profile this Qatar team and their progress towards 2022 more than 12 months ago, yet no media outlet was willing to publish, so the story went unwritten.
This isn’t a ‘woe is me’ cry, but it speaks to a wider issue with the way the media in Australia approaches Asian football: everything is seen through an Australian prism.
It ultimately means we view things with such a narrow focus that we miss what is happening around us, and when we get to occasions – such as the Asian Cup – we aren’t aware of the quality of the other 23 nations.
Waleed Aly articulated it perfectly on the ABC’s Offsiders program on Sunday morning, when he said, “Remember the Asian Cup? When we’re not winning it we tend not to talk about it.”
Simon Hill has made a similar point repeatedly in recent months on the Fox Football Podcast, arguing that more media space needs to show and discuss Asian football, be it domestic or international, if we are to fully appreciate and understand the complex landscape and where Australia sits within that.
That said, the irony of Hill expressing that view on a Fox Sports medium isn’t lost. Let’s just hope his bosses are listening, especially with the AFC Champions League around the corner – another tournament we tend to ignore when Australian participation ends.
While it’s easy to smash the AFC and demand they should do more, and there is plenty more they could do, we also need to look in our own backyard and, in that respect, we are failing badly.
Speaking of failure, let’s touch upon Australia’s campaign.
Graham Arnold can try and paint a different picture, but no one is buying it – a quarter-final exit is a failure in anyone’s language, especially given the manner of our exit, going goalless in three of our five matches and failing to score in our final 215 minutes of football.
Graham Arnold (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
While injuries played their part – Aaron Mooy, Martin Boyle and Daniel Arzani all would’ve added significantly to the side – Australia weren’t alone in that regard, so it can’t be used an excuse, not so when Arnold himself declared pre-tournament that he expected Australia to win the title undefeated.
Elsewhere, the tournament failed to live up to the standard set by Australia four years ago, on and off the park. Crowds were well down, even with an extra 19 games in the schedule. There was also a general lack of a tournament vibe across the host cities, which wasn’t helped by the fact it was scarcely available on TV, with beIN Sports hiding it away on a subscription-only channel.
Watching games, therefore, was difficult, a point one coach made to me during the tournament. Like most of us, he too was missing the tournament buzz that we football junkies live for.
On the pitch, things weren’t much better. With Australia, Japan (for the most part) and South Korea struggling to hit top gear, the tournament was sadly devoid of any eye-catching football.
Iran impressed in brushing aside the minnows but were found wanting when faced with a decent opponent in the semi-final.
As for the hosts, while they may have made the semi-final, they were lucky to do so given their turgid form.
The low point, not just for them but for the tournament generally, came in that semi-final when their fans’ petulance and pettiness was on full display, showering the pitch with bottles and shoes as the Qataris scored goal after goal to humiliate the hosts.
Thankfully the tournament finished on a high note with arguably the best game of the competition. An emerging power taking it to an established one, with spectacular goals and in front a raucous, respectful and well-behaved crowd.
It may not have been the final the tournament deserved, but it was the final the tournament needed.
Freddie
Guest
The bigger issue with Qatar is not the quality of the players they are developing, but whether they are actually Qatari in the first place, and whether they bend the qualification rules. Most of their squad was born overseas, and while some may be there fully on merit, there is no doubt they fast-track a lot of young foreign kids into their Aspire Academy, then give them citizenship if they are good enough. It's all rather murky, and AFC seem loathe to investigate it fully.
That A-League Fan
Roar Guru
You’re an optimist! Well, I just can’t really see any of them being the next Harry Kewell or Tim Cahill. But, there’s some hope.
That A-League Fan
Roar Guru
Australia is just not the same side in the Middle East, or without Boyle, Mooy and Arzani. Considering Australia’s poor record, I’m not disappointed. I would have settled for it beforehand.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Western Pride FC already play in the Qld NPL. They lost to Roar youth in R1 by 3-1.
Nick Symonds
Guest
Qatar only has a population of 2.6 million of which about 90 percent are foreign workers, meaning that the native population is only around 260,000 people who they can draw upon. Iceland has 20,000 players from a population of 338,000. Yet people think that if only every AFL, NRL, BBL player etc played football we would have a stronger team. But Qatar and Iceland show that you don't necessarily need a large number of players as long as you have a good development program for the ones that you do have. But still, more players are always a good thing though...
Barca4life
Guest
For all the problems Qatar has with the world cup, its treatment of foreign workers etc. They developed a great long term plan based on youth development from 2005 with the Aspire Academy and in 2019 they get the rewards. A great learning lesson for any aspiring football out there, aim for the long term to get the best results as a national team.
Carl Spackler (The greenskeeper)
Guest
How about no stupid American nicknames!? They could just call the club by the place where it is located and leave it at that. You know like Carlton Football Club or Manchester United Football Club. The club will be based in Tarneit so that or West Melbourne or I would just use the name Victoria, the state's club. Or the completely lame marketing cretin's wet dream name of Club Australia.
Amazon
Roar Rookie
Franko Not sure if you’re in the know.........but what’s the latest on the Geelong home games. I read that GFC has said they can’t accommodate WMG for all their home games, over the 3 years due to commitments in place with AFL, BBL, AFLW & Victory games.
VivGilchrist
Roar Rookie
Why don’t you write one?
paul
Guest
If ever there was an argument for splitting the East and West Asian confederations this is surely it. I've had just about a gutful of Gulf shenanigans. Worth noting that even the likes of North Korea and the People's Republic of China don't engage in this kind of crap.
Voice of Reason
Roar Rookie
I recall the late, great Dave Mackay going to coach in Qatar many years ago. He enjoyed it, but then he was teetotal! Fair play to Qatar, I thought they played well. A lot of money would have gone into getting the hosting rights for the World Cup and this sort of success sets up decent crowds (hopefully) for 2022. Australia needs a decent target man and goalscorer so badly!
max power
Guest
well done Qatar, and only have 5 imports these days. a far cry from importing Brazilians
Nick Symonds
Guest
The next golden generation could be just around the corner: Daniel Arzani, Awer Mabil, Chris Ikonomidis, Riley McGree, Denis Genreau, Ramy Najjarine, John Iredale, Moudi Najjar, Milislav Popovic, Cian Cuba, Sebastian Pasquali, Jacob Italiano, Dylan Wenzel-Halls, Nikodah Smith, Tyrese Francois, Alexander Robertson, Reno Piscopo. - HIGHLIGHTS Reno Piscopo - Rated third best player in the world in his age group at 15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAjHpyVCSYY Tyrese Francois - At Fulham, being chased by Valencia, Celtic and Crystal Palace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXh4ko9MW18 Sebastian Pasquali – Playmaker at Ajax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVDzUIS5pSU Cian Cuba - Gold Coast United https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbSOn5qx3uU Moudi Najjar - Melbourne City https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAO-231yqWY Dylan Wenzel-Halls - Brisbane Roar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWkaB9DNlKY Nikodah Smith – First Australian professional player in Brazil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxotV_3xonA
pete4
Guest
Fair play to Qatar they have obviously have improved in leaps and bounds by sinking plenty $ into football. I just hope they deliver the WC as promised in 2022
Nick Symonds
Guest
NEWS: British football fan arrested in UAE for wearing Qatar team shirt - "Ahmad now faces up to 15 years behind bars after being arrested by security officials and later detained by police for wearing the shirt and over claims he had made false allegations." - https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/british-football-fan-arrested-in-uae-for-wearing-qatar-team-shirt/news-story/1bd94ed14c20ea16f71c6a29f87deec9
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Arnold says things publicly to motivate his own team and mess with the minds of the opposition. What he says publicly is unlikely to be exactly what he thinks. That’s what all coaches/managers/leaders do. I can’t understand why people can’t understand that. We should also cut the team some slack because the reality is this tournament was badly timed for us. For one thing, Arnold had few opportunities to work with the team beforehand. That was obvious from the Rhyan Grant’s performance. He knows the kinds of runs Arnold relies on to open up play and he made a lot of them but they were mostly ignored by the rest of the team. In general, the team looked a little lost about where each other would be and so did not play instinctively. Given more time with the team Arnold would have sorted that out. Arnold also lost the three players most likely to solve our longest running problem i.e. creating real chances and scoring goals. Like most countries, we don’t have much depth in those departments and losing Mooy’s passing and Arzani and Boyle’s ability to run at defences was a huge problem (but there is no way Arnold can say that publicly). It meant opposition teams could simply close Rogic down and then watch the rest of our attack spin aimlessly. It wasn’t all aimless spin though because Ikonomidis and Mabil created some good chances. It was actually encouraging for the future that we still created chances even without Mooy, Arzani and Boyle. Sadly, we have no obvious solution for our striking problem but I reckon Arnold would have used Leckie as a striker had he not been injured for most of the tournament. Arzani, Leckie and Boyle rotating up front would have been great to watch. All up, I was resigned to an early exit once Mooy, Arzani and Boyle dropped out, and Leckie was ruled out for the opening games. But on the evidence from the tournament I’m really looking forward to watching those four in the team for World Cup qualifiers.
Franko
Guest
The options for West Melbourne's name are as follows: Western United FC Western Melbourne Athletic FC Westside Pride FC Western Melbourne Warriors FC A name of the individual's choice The options for West's colours are: Black Red Green White (sorry, I thought there would be an article on it by now)