Asian Cup update

Friday July 13, 07
Iraq 3 - 1 Australia
UAE 1 - 3 Japan

Damn! Iraq took it to Australia, that's a surprise. Australia probably fancies themselves as one of the favorites and no one expects Iraq to be good at…well, anything…at the moment. With a win and a draw Iraq is at the top of Group A with Thailand while Australia is struggling with Oman down at the bottom. The Japan-Vietnam match next week might decide who gets left behind in that group. UAE is officially eliminated from moving on.

Saturday July 14, 07
Uzbekistan 5 - 0 Malaysia
Saudi Arabia 2 - 1 Indonesia
Uzbekistan laid the wood to Malaysia, pretty much knocking them out of the next round.
Saudi Arabia is looking pretty good so far. Indonesia has South Korea up next, they're last chance to get it done.

Sunday July 15, 07
Bahrain 14 : 35 Korea Republic
China PR 12 : 20 Iran
China-Iran is an interesting match-up of two regional powers. Iran used to be the Middle Eastern power in soccer until the Ayatollah appeared in the late '70s and put the kibosh on anything that people might enjoy. Iran is only now starting to bring back that old time feeling. China has the largest population in the world--that alone should make them competitive but again we see the deleterious effects of repressive governments and broken economies. China has never been as good as they should be (like USA, where soccer is a victim of social repression rather than inept governance), and like their booming stock market, their soccer talent is only now starting to emerge. If Bahrain can pull off the upset they can still get back into this thing. But if Korea gets the W, they'll move on.