Jordan's arrival in the Asian Cup final has been a big surprise.
The Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar, has witnessed the emergence of a new Asian Cup winner 14 months after seeing Argentina win the 2022 World Cup.
In the final of the 18th Asian Cup in the early morning of February 11, Beijing time, the host Qatar team successfully defended its title by defeating the "dark horse" Jordan team 3-1 with a penalty "hat trick" scored by star Afif. Qatar also became the fifth team in history to defend the Asian Cup and the seventh host team. Afif won the "Golden Boot" of the tournament with 8 goals, and also won the title of the best player of the tournament.
The Qatar team defended its title as it wished, thanks to a certain extent due to its exclusive advantages of time, place and people, but if there was no group of elite players from "Aspire" represented by Afif, Haydos and Ali, and then grew rapidly, it is unlikely that this team will win the Asian Cup championship for the first time only 4 years after finishing at the bottom of the 2015 Asian Cup group, let alone defend the title. Although the Jordanian team unfortunately missed out on the championship, and the model chosen by Jordanian football in the process of exploring the development path is also strictly different from the "Aspire" model of Qatari football, they were able to "gallop as a dark horse" all the way in this cup and enter the Asian Cup final in a historic way, which is awe-inspiring.
Behind the excellent results of the champion and runner-up teams are also based on youth training, and there is no turning back in cultivating young and high-quality talents. Taking this Asian Cup as a lesson, if the Chinese team wants to reverse the decline, it needs to tackle far more than "changing the coach".
Qatar defended their Asian Cup title.
After defending the title, the country's elite players have brought confidence to the team.
In the early morning of the 11th, Beijing time, the final of the 18th Asian Cup was played between the host and defending champion Qatar team and the Jordanian team, which entered the final for the first time. According to the official statistics of the AFC, Jordan had a whopping 57 3 possession in this game, nearly 15 percentage points more than the home team. Jordan also dominated key stats such as the number of attacks they threatened, proving that they were not left to luck to reach the final for the first time.
It has to be said that the Qatari team, which has home advantage, also has another big advantage, that is, international game experience. As the host team of the World Cup more than a year ago, the Qatar team has received much more experience than its opponents in both warm-up matches and official competitions. Therefore, in this game, the Qatar team won 3 penalty opportunities and hit 3 penalty shots. As the AFC commented after the game: "Qatar seemed to be passive, but they were always the side that controlled the pace of the game, and they took advantage of the opponent's eagerness to attack. ”
If you go back two months, it's hard to believe that Qatar can successfully defend their Asian Cup title, even if they have home advantage. In fact, Qatar just underwent a change of manager in December last year, and even Haydos, the team's veteran captain, may not be optimistic about the prospect of former coach of Qatari league club Wakra taking over. However, Max is confident of a new challenge, and it is precisely the elite players under his command who have given him the confidence to lead the team.
Among the starting 11 of the Qatar team, except for defender Lucas Mendes, the rest of the players were all trained by Aspire Academy. Unlike Indonesia, Malaysia and other teams in this Asian Cup that recruit adult naturalized players in batches, the vast majority of naturalized players in the Qatar team are also from "Aspire". In addition to their talents and abilities, they have been together since childhood, and the degree of tacit cooperation with each other is far greater than that of the "overseas legions" put together by other teams in the later stage. Therefore, even if Haydos, Aziz, and Ismail are gradually "aging", they can still do a good job of passing, helping, and leading the younger generation in their limited playing time.
Like Ali, who won the "Top Scorer, Best Player" award last year, the 27-year-old is currently in the first age group of his career. From the opening game of the group stage to the semi-final against Iran and then to the final against Jordan, whenever Qatar is in danger, Afif has always stepped up to become the key man for the team. His attacking trident with Haydos and Ali is the strongest weapon for Qatar to defend their title. In this way, Qatar's title defense is just another example of how the world of football can be "carefully cultivated and blossomed".
Jordanian football also has something to learn from the national football team.
The Jordanian team is more like a "dark horse gallop".
So does the Jordanian finish in second place mean defeat? The answer, of course, is no. Especially when the Jordanian team entered the Asian Cup final as a team in Pot 3 and the third place in the group stage, no one doubted their determination and strength to "go black to the end". Result aside, Jordan's overall performance in this tournament has been convincing. So much so that after the final, the team received applause from FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the host fans at the scene.
Although the Jordanian team entered the knockout stage with the third place in the group stage, the result of 1 draw and 1 win against the favorite South Korea in the group stage and semi-finals, as well as the reality of a one-goal loss to the Bahrain team in the final round of the group stage, have made the outside world sigh about this dark horse.
The Jordanian team in Doha has attacker Tamari who plays for Ligue 1 clubs, but most of the players play in their home leagues, except for him and a few players who play in the Qatari league. Although it is different from the Qatari team's model of relying on the power of "Aspire", Jordan's thinking on the cultivation of football talents has always been unwavering. Before the stunning debut in this Asian Cup, Jordan's youth national teams of many ages have emerged in important competitions in Asian football, and even achieved quite excellent results. For example, in the inaugural U22 Asian Cup in 2014 (the predecessor of the U23 Asian Cup), the Jordanian U22 team won the third place. At the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, the Jordanian team made it to the top 8 of the men's football team. Jordan's 2003 national youth team also reached the quarterfinals of the U20 Asian Cup ......
A series of achievements of Jordan's national team also show that even if you do not pursue a shortcut such as "introducing naturalized players", as long as you persist in youth training and do not go back, you can still achieve more ideal results in the cultivation of football talents, and even a bumper harvest. The achievements of the champion and runner-up teams in this Asian Cup have actually given more inspiration to Chinese football in difficulty.
The Chinese referee team has achieved remarkable results in this Asian Cup.
The Chinese referee team departed for China.
In the early morning of the 11th, Beijing time, at the 18th Asian Cup Awards Ceremony held at Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and other guests awarded medals symbolizing the honor of "Best Referee" to four Chinese referees on duty, including referee Ma Ning. With glory and pride, Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Zhou Fei, and Zhang Cheng, four Chinese referees, left Doha in the early morning of yesterday local time to return to China.
With their solid business skills, rich experience in law enforcement in the competition and good law enforcement performance in all stages of the competition before the finals of this Asian Cup, the Chinese referee team with Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Zhou Fei and Zhang Cheng as members has won the law enforcement qualification for the finals of this Asian Cup. Among them, Ma Ning and Fu Ming are the chief referees and assistant referees respectively, and Zhou Fei and Zhang Cheng serve as two assistant referees. After participating in the enforcement of the last Asian Cup final as the fourth **, Ma Ning also became the first Chinese referee to officiate in the Asian Cup final. I have to say that Chinese football referees ushered in the highest moment of law enforcement.
In the pinnacle duel of the Asian Cup that night, 4 Chinese referees performed well. Among them, Ma Ning showed a total of 5 yellow cards to the two teams (4 to Jordan and 1 to Qatar). What is more interesting is that Ma Ning awarded the Qatar team a total of 3 penalties in this game, and the host team won 3-1 with 3 penalty kicks and successfully defended the title. On two of the three penalties awarded, Manin intervened through the VAR process to determine that the Jordanian player had committed a foul in the box. Judging from the actual situation, Ma Ning's several key decisions were all accurate. In this process, Fu Ming, as a VAR referee, Zhou Fei and Zhang Cheng as assistant referees, also cooperated with Ma Ning very tacitly. The Chinese referees were able to successfully complete the law enforcement work of this Cup, which also benefited from the collective wisdom and strength.