Asian Football

 

 

Unbelievable.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10688251

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Good season all round for Sasa. Captain of Seongnam, winner of AFC Champions' League, 4th in the league after playoffs, FA Cup quarterfinalists, and now AFC Player of the Year.

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Ohhhh!     So.... �you mean it might show the people who live in Asia that they are not the only people in the world who play football, and actually white Europeans and their descendants deserve a little bit of recognition that they can actually play football too?

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Right. Good point.

 

so???? No doubt this is being reported in Aus, cos it's actually relevant given he's an aussie and Australia are in the Asian Confed, it has and never will have any bearing on NZ....unless the player nominated plays or has played for the nix, is a kiwi etc.

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Robson hasn't had a huge impact so far. After Peter Reid walked out 1 year into his 4-year contract, Robson came in with little time to prepare for the last few Asian Cup qualifers. After overseeing a�3-1 victory in Singapore, Thailand lost the reverse fixture 0-1, drew with Jordan 0-0, and lost a must-win game�in Iran 0-1, missing out on qualification. He is also supposed to be in charge of the U-23s,�but sent his assistant coach to the ASEAN Games in Laos last December, and Thailand crashed out in the group stage, having won the previous 8 tournaments. The seniors then played a home friendly tournament with Singapore (W), Denmark (L) and Poland (L), finishing 3rd.

He has had two major tournaments in the last two months. Firstly,�the Asian Games in Gwangzhou, China (U-23). The team achieved the minimum target of the quarterfinals, but really struggled to get there. After thrashing Pakistan 6-0, they needed an own goal to draw�with Oman 1-1, and then embarassingly drew with the Maldives 0-0 (although it was 1-way traffic).�They beat Turkmenistan 1-0 in extra-time in the 2nd round, before playing their best match of the tournament�in a 0-1 loss to eventual champions Japan.

The seniors went to Indonesia for the AFF Suzuki Cup, expected to get to the last four. However, they trailled qualifiers Laos�twice before�snatching a 2-2 draw in the 91st minute, followed by a 0-0 draw with Malaysia. (Laos went on to be thrashed 0-6 v Indonesia and 1-5 by Malaysia). The Thais needed to beat Indonesia, and went up 1-0 around 70 minutes, before folding badly at the end.

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Robson�has blamed fixture congestion, and to an extent he is right. A ridiculous two-legged League Cup was started at the end of August and finished�on November 21st. (The TPL season ran Mar14 - Oct 24). Although the FA Cup semis were played on Oct 30, the final wasn't played until November 28th, 3 days before the Laos match. It involved the 1st and 3rd placed teams�from the league, and went to extra time. These two sides both contributed 6 players to the 22 in Indonesia. Another 5 players were from one of the sides that played the League Cup final the previous week. The Thai fans are currently calling for heads to roll at FA level, and to a lesser extent, Robson's, rather than the players.

However, Robson�has to shoulder some of the blame; he knew the schedule, yet picked 9 players in the Indonesian squad in the Gwangzhou team, including all 3 overage players.�Also, he keeps bemoaning a lack of�goals, but�like Reid, has consistently overlooked the�current best�Thai scorer�(Golden Boot 2008, 2009, 3rd to 2 imports this�year)�in the TPL, and until�3 months ago, also was leaving out the 2nd best Thai scorer from this season.

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Olympic qualifying begins in February, and he'll need to produce results if he's to stay on. I hear rumours here that he's only here part-time, and spends a lot of time�on his Manchester United Ambassador duties. His assistant, Steve Darby, who's been involved in SE Asian football for years, seems to be the one watching the players most of the time.��

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