2007 AFC Asian Cup

2007 AFC Asian Cup

Piala Asia 2007 (Indonesian, Malaysian) เอเชียนคัพ 2007 (Thai) Cúp bóng đá châu Á 2007 (Viet)
Logo of the 2007 Asian Cup
Tournament details
Host country	Indonesia  Malaysia  Thailand  Vietnam
Dates	7 – 29 July
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	8 (in 7 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Iraq (1st title)
Runners-up	Saudi Arabia
Third place	South Korea
Fourth place	Japan
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	84 (2.63 per match)
Attendance	724,222 (22,632 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Yasser Al-Qahtani Younis Mahmoud Naohiro Takahara (4 goals each)
Best player	Younis Mahmoud
Fair play award	Japan

The 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals were held from 7 to 29 July 2007. For the first time in its history, the competition was co-hosted by four nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. For the first time in the nation's history, Iraq won the continental title after it defeated Saudi Arabia 1–0 in the final. As the winner, Iraq represented the AFC in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Before 2007 and every four years, Asia often held its continental tournament from 1956 until China in 2004. With the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship also held in the same year as the Asian Cup, the AFC changed their tradition. Beginning in 2007, Asia will hold its continental tournament a year earlier, and every four years henceforth from that date.

An estimated worldwide television audience of 650 million people tuned in to watch the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.^[1]

Australia participated for the first time since moving to the AFC from the OFC. Australia happened to also be the tournament's first nation aside from the co-hosts to qualify for the 2007 Asian Cup.

Host selection

Mohammed Bin Hammam proposed and presented a move to have four host nations for the 2007 Asian Cup. However, he later regretted this decision and called it his "mistake", citing the financial and logistic difficulties in organising an event across four countries. He said that "It is proving very difficult for [the executive committee as they] have to have four organising committees, four media centres and there are also financial considerations." He also revealed that "[He would] definitely [not do] it [again]", if he had the choice.

In June 2005, the Asian Football Confederation warned Thailand that it needed to improve its facilities before 2007, otherwise it would be dropped, possibly being replaced with Singapore. On 12 August of the same year, the AFC confirmed that Thailand would be a co-host of the 2007 Asian Cup.^[2] However, in October 2006, Thailand was again warned to improve its facilities in 90 days.^[3]

Venues

Jakarta

Palembang

Kuala Lumpur

Shah Alam

Bangkok

Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh City

Location of stadiums of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

Jakarta	Palembang	Kuala Lumpur	Shah Alam
Gelora Bung Karno Stadium	Gelora Sriwijaya Stadium	Bukit Jalil Stadium	Shah Alam Stadium
Capacity: 88,083	Capacity: 36,000	Capacity: 110,000	Capacity: 80,372
Bangkok	Bangkok	Hanoi	Ho Chi Minh City
Rajamangala Stadium	Suphachalasai Stadium	Mỹ Đình Stadium	Quân khu 7 Stadium
Capacity: 49,722	Capacity: 19,793	Capacity: 40,192	Capacity: 25,000

Qualification

The qualification round ran from 22 February 2006, to 15 November 2006. For the first time, the defending champions (Japan) needed to attend the qualification stage. Twenty-four nations would be split into six four-team groups for the qualification phase of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. As the four co-hosts – Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam – were already granted automatic qualification.

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament1, 2
Indonesia	00Co-hosts	7 August 2004	03 !3 (1996, 2000, 2004)
Malaysia	01Co-hosts	7 August 2004	02 !2 (1976, 1980)
Thailand	02Co-hosts	7 August 2004	05 !5 (1972, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Vietnam	03Co-hosts	7 August 2004	02 !2 (19563, 19603)
Australia	D1 !Group D winner	11 October 2006	0 (debut)
Japan	A1 !Group A winner	15 November 2006	05 !5 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Saudi Arabia	A2 !Group A runner-up	15 November 2006	06 !6 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Iran	B1 !Group B winner	15 November 2006	10 !10 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
South Korea	B2 !Group B runner-up	15 November 2006	10 !10 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004)
United Arab Emirates	C1 !Group C winner	15 November 2006	06 !6 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004)
Oman	C2 !Group C runner-up	15 November 2006	01 !1 (2004)
Bahrain	D2 !Group D runner-up	15 November 2006	02 !2 (1988, 2004)
Iraq	E1 !Group E winner	15 November 2006	05 !5 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004)
China PR	E2 !Group E runner-up	15 November 2006	08 !8 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Qatar	F1 !Group F winner	15 November 2006	06 !6 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004)
Uzbekistan	F2 !Group F runner-up	15 November 2006	03 !3 (1996, 2000, 2004)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² Italic indicates host

³ As South Vietnam

Seeds

For the first time, the seeds are based on the October 2006 FIFA World Rankings instead of the basis of the performance from the previous AFC Asian Cup competition. This was to ensure that the same number of strong teams do not meet in the early stage.^[4]

The four seeded teams were announced on 19 December 2006. The seeds comprised Pot 4 in the draw. Pot 1 consists of the teams from all co-hosts.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Indonesia  Malaysia  Thailand  Vietnam	China PR  Iraq  United Arab Emirates  Bahrain	Qatar  Uzbekistan  Saudi Arabia  Oman	Australia  Iran  Japan  South Korea

On 19 December 2006, the draw was held in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Match ball

The Official Match Ball for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup was launched by Nike on 15 May 2007, making it the first time ever that a ball had been launched specifically for any football competition in Asia.^[5] The Nike Mercurial Veloci AC features four blue stripes with gold trim with each host city's name inscribed, as well as the AFC Asian Cup logo.^[6]

Officials

16 referees and 24 assistant referees were officially cleared following a fitness test on 2 July in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One referee and two assistant referees were also named from the CAF.^[7]

† Replaced Shamsul Maidin after the referee pulled out with injury.^[8]

Songs

In 2007 AFC Asian Cup had two songs: "I Believe" by Tata Young from Thailand and "Play Hard" by Kim from Vietnam.

Squads

Tournament summary

The Asian Cup saw many upsets in the early stages of the tournament. In Group A, Oman held favourites Australia to a surprising draw. Oman took the lead and would have won save for an injury time goal from Tim Cahill. Next, hosts Vietnam shocked Gulf Champions UAE with a 2–0 victory. In the same group, Qatar held Japan to a shock 1–1 draw. The result caused Japan coach Ivica Osim to fly into a rage in which he branded his players as 'amateurs' and reduced his interpreter to tears.^[9] In Group D, Indonesia continued the undefeated streak of the hosts by defeating Bahrain 2–1. Malaysia ended up as the only host country to drop their match, losing to China 5–1. Thailand recorded just its 2nd win in the Asian Cup finals (their other was in 1972 against Cambodia), and its first ever win in regulation, when they beat Oman 2–0 on 12 July. Meanwhile, Australia was upset by a 3–1 defeat against Iraq the following day, leaving them floundering in the tournament despite high expectations.

In the quarterfinals, Iraq defeated Vietnam 2–0, while South Korea ('Korea Republic') needed a penalty shootout to eliminate Iran 4–2. Japan also needed a penalty shootout to defeat Australia 4–3 (this was the first time Australian 'keeper Mark Schwarzer had ever come out on the losing end of a penalty shoot-out), and Saudi Arabia won over Uzbekistan 2–1. Iraq upset South Korea in the semi-finals by winning 4–3 on penalties, resulting in thousands of Iraqis celebrating in the streets of Baghdad. Over 50 Iraqis were killed by terrorist bombs targeting these crowds.^[10] In the other semi-finals, Saudi Arabia topped defending champions Japan 3–2 to make an all-Arab affair for the final match.

Iraq went on to defeat Saudi Arabia 1–0 taking the Asian Cup title. Iraqi forward and captain Younis Mahmoud was given the title of Most Valuable Player. South Korea took third place narrowly beating Japan in penalties 6–5. It was the third consecutive match in the tournament that South Korea played 0–0 before a penalty shootout. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, as the top three national teams in the tournament, all received automatic berths to the 2011 Asian Cup along with the next hosts Qatar. .^[11]

Group stage

Key to colours in group tables
	Group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Iraq	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	5
Australia	3	1	1	1	6	4	+2	4
Thailand	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4
Oman	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2

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Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Japan	3	2	1	0	8	3	+5	7
Vietnam	3	1	1	1	4	5	−1	4
United Arab Emirates	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
Qatar	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2

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Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Iran	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	7
Uzbekistan	3	2	0	1	9	2	+7	6
China PR	3	1	1	1	7	6	+1	4
Malaysia	3	0	0	3	1	12	−11	0

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Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Saudi Arabia	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	7
South Korea	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
Indonesia	3	1	0	2	3	4	−1	3
Bahrain	3	1	0	2	3	7	−4	3

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Knockout stage

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	21 July – Bangkok
	Iraq	2
					25 July – Kuala Lumpur
	Vietnam	0
					Iraq (pen.)	0 (4)
	22 July – Kuala Lumpur
					South Korea	0 (3)
	Iran	0 (2)
									29 July – Jakarta
	South Korea (pen.)	0 (4)
									Iraq	1
	21 July – Hanoi
									Saudi Arabia	0
	Japan (pen.)	1 (4)
					25 July – Hanoi
	Australia	1 (3)
					Japan	2			Third place
	22 July – Jakarta
					Saudi Arabia	3
	Saudi Arabia	2							South Korea (pen.)	0 (6)
	Uzbekistan	1							Japan	0 (5)
									28 July – Palembang

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Winners

AFC Asian Cup 2007 Winners
Iraq First title

Awards

Top Goalscorers	Most Valuable Player	Best Goalkeeper	Best Defender	Best Defence	Most Entertaining Team	Fair Play Award
Younis Mahmoud Yasser Al-Qahtani Naohiro Takahara	Younis Mahmoud	Noor Sabri	Bassim Abbas	Iraq	Iraq	Japan

Team of the tournament

The Toshiba All-Star XI was voted for by fans on the official Asian Cup website. The overall results of the votes were:

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Lee Woon-jae	Yuji Nakazawa Lucas Neill Bassim Abbas Rahman Rezaei	Shunsuke Nakamura Harry Kewell Lee Chun-soo Nashat Akram	Naohiro Takahara Yasser Al-Qahtani

Goalscorers

With four goals, Younis Mahmoud, Naohiro Takahara and Yasser Al-Qahtani are the top scorers in the tournament. In total, 84 goals were scored by 57 different players, with two of them credited as own goals.

Top scoring teams

Final positions

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Eff
1	Iraq	6	3	3	0	7	2	+5	12	66.7%
2	Saudi Arabia	6	4	1	1	12	6	+6	13	72.2%
3	South Korea	6	1	4	1	3	3	0	7	38.9%
4	Japan	6	2	3	1	11	7	+4	9	50.0%
Eliminated in the Quarterfinals
5	Iran	4	2	2	0	6	3	+3	8	66.7%
6	Uzbekistan	4	2	0	2	10	4	+6	6	50.0%
7	Australia	4	1	2	1	7	5	+2	5	41.7%
8	Vietnam	4	1	1	2	4	7	−3	4	33.3%
Eliminated in the First Stage
9	China PR	3	1	1	1	7	6	+1	4	44.4%
10	Thailand	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4	44.4%
11	Indonesia	3	1	0	2	3	4	−1	3	33.3%
12	United Arab Emirates	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3	33.3%
13	Bahrain	3	1	0	2	3	7	−4	3	33.3%
14	Qatar	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2	22.2%
15	Oman	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2	22.2%
16	Malaysia	3	0	0	3	1	12	−11	0	0.0%

See also

• Sports diplomacy

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to AFC Asian Cup 2007.

• AFC Asian Cup 2007 Official Site (Archived)
• Asian Cup 2007 at RSSSF