Asia’s World Cup may be over with Japan’s agonizing elimination in a penalty shoot-out, but the Asian Football Confederation teams did enough to reaffirm the region’s growing stature.
Two out of four made the last 16, compared to just one out of five from Africa, and they did it in historic fashion with neither South Korea or Japan ever going beyond the group phase on foreign soil before.
Japan came into the tournament under a dark cloud after losing four games in a row, but they left with their dignity restored after beating Denmark 3-1 and Cameroon 1-0, and only narrowly losing 1-0 to the Netherlands.
It put them into the knockout rounds and they were unlucky to fall 5-3 on penalties to Paraguay on Tuesday after the game ended in a scoreless draw. They awoke to headlines full of praise yesterday.
“Surprised the world; endured a gruelling 120 minutes,” the Asahi Shimbun said, while the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun declared that their “bravery will be remembered.”
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan hailed the side’s performance.
‘BRAVE BATTLES’
“They showed the world the real strength of Japanese football by working as a team,” Kan said. “I applaud them for their brave battles.”
South Korea won similar plaudits for their exploits, which tempted millions of people onto the streets of Seoul and other major Korean cities to watch their games live on big screen televisions.
They came into the tournament among an elite group of just six nations to have qualified for seven World Cups in a row, along with Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Spain. But unlike the rest, before South Africa they could only boast of one win on foreign soil — a 2-1 victory over Togo in 2006.
They added to that with an opening 2-0 victory over Greece, before crashing 4-1 to Argentina and then drawing 2-2 with Nigeria.
But squandered chances saw them lose 2-1 to Uruguay to draw a curtain on their campaign.
MISSION
Despite failing in their mission to make the semi-finals, coach Huh Jung-moo praised his players.
“My players did their best. We have the capability, but we have seen here that we have areas to improve on,” he said.
“It would have been a lot better if we had played with a bit more confidence, but I feel hopeful for the future of South Korean football.” he said.
Australia, who made the last 16 in 2006, couldn’t manage a repeat.
The Socceroos’ campaign got off to a disastrous start when they were routed 4-0 by the Germans.
They kept themselves in contention for the knockout phase when they drew 1-1 with Ghana and produced their best performance with a pulsating 2-1 victory over Serbia but lost out on a place in the last 16 on goal difference.
North Korea were the one team out of their depth. They put up an impressed in a 2-1 defeat to Brazil but were routed 7-0 by Portugal and 3-0 by the Ivory Coast.
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