Every 20 years, Chinese want to go to the stage of the Asian Cup final, and this year may continue, old fans and friends know that the Chinese men's football team reached the Asian Cup final twice in 1984 and 2004. After another 20 years, the Chinese men's football team was eliminated early in the 2024 Asian Cup, but in the final stage, it is likely that there will be Chinese referee Ma Ning.
Over the past decade, Ma Ning has indeed been one of the AFC's most praised East Asian referees, officiating almost all of the AFC's highest-level matches, officiating two AFC Champions League finals at club level, and being selected for the World Cup in Qatar at the national team level. On the stage of this Asian Cup, Ma Ning has been in the quarterfinals of the group stage and the quarterfinals for three times.
Back to the much-anticipated match between Japan and Iran last night, how did Ma Ning enforce the law? I think it is generally possible to score high, but there are a slight flaws This flaw is mainly because the cooperation between him and the assistant referee is not tacit enough for the first time, and Ma Ning is a temporary task to enforce this game.
The only two Chinese assistant referees in this Asian Cup have followed Fu Ming to enforce another quarter-final one day ago, and there is no way to enforce the law continuously, and Ma Ning's partners in this game are two Australian assistant referees. In the first half of the game, it can be clearly seen that for some sideline balls and corner kicks, Ma Ning will habitually look at the assistant referee's decision first to show respect, until the second half of the game gradually entered the state, Ma Ning began to play his decisive and independent characteristics.
Looking at all the key penalties that can determine the trend of the game throughout the game, Ma Ning basically made the right judgment, especially the penalty that was decisively awarded in injury time at the last moment of the game, creating the final stunner, which really requires very strong courage and momentum. Because most of the referees may be hesitant at that time, waiting for **r to remind themselves, but this situation has never been in this Asian Cup for the two Chinese referees, Ma Ning and Fu Ming.
In the five games that these two referees enforced, none of them was because of their own misjudgment or omission, and there was no time for VAR to remind him to look at the video again, which is quite rare among all the referees in this Asian Cup. Back to the beginning, why is Ma Ning very hopeful of officiating the final of this Asian Cup? Because according to the original AFC plan, Ma Ning only served as the fourth ** in the quarterfinals, so he would most likely be in the semifinals.
However, the AFC temporarily handed over the Japanese team and the Iranian team to Ma Ning to enforce the law, which means that he will not play in the semifinals, and if he still has the opportunity to enforce the law in this Asian Cup, it is likely to be the final final. Because in this Asian Cup, there is no clear principle of referee avoidance in East and West Asia, as long as you are not a referee of the participating country, there is basically no evasion.
In this case, whether the final is a West Asian civil war, or a showdown between East and West Asia, Ma Ning has a chance to be on the stage, and I hope that this weekend's Asian Cup final can still have Chinese elements! Come on, Manin!