2011 AFC Asian Cup

2011 AFC Asian Cup
كأس آسيا 2011
Tournament details
Host country  Qatar
Dates 7–29 January
Teams 16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s) 5 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions  Japan (4th title)
Runners-up  Australia
Third place  South Korea
Fourth place  Uzbekistan
Tournament statistics
Matches played 32
Goals scored 90 (2.81 per match)
Attendance 405,361 (12,668 per match)
Top scorer(s) South Korea Koo Ja-Cheol (5 goals)
Best player Japan Keisuke Honda
Fair play award  South Korea
Results of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

The 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals were held in Qatar on 7–29 January 2011.[1][2] It was the fifteenth time the tournament has been held, and the second time it has been hosted by Qatar, the other being the 1988 AFC Asian Cup. Japan won the cup after a 1–0 win against Australia, and earned the right to compete in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil as the representative from AFC.[3][4]

A television viewing audience of 484 million in 80 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, North America and North Africa witnessed Japan defeat Australia 1–0 in the final.[5]

Host selection

Voting results
Country Votes
 Qatar 6
 Iran 5
 India 1

Qatar, India and Iran all lodged interest in hosting the 2011 AFC Asian Cup,[6] while Australia also considered making a late bid.[7] Qatar officially submitted their bid on 19 June 2006,[8] while India withdrew their interest and Iran failed to submit proper documentation for their bid on time.[9]

Qatar was announced as host nation on 29 July 2007, during the 2007 AFC Asian Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia. Due to FIFA regulations stating that confederation events can be hosted either in January or July, and July being peak summer heat in the Middle East, 2011 Asian Cup took place in January of that year.[1][2]

Qualification

The teams finishing first, second and third in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, and the host nation for the 2011 competition, received automatic byes to the finals. They were joined by the top two finishers in each of five qualifying groups. The AFC Challenge Cup acted as a further qualification competition for eligible countries within the emerging and developing category of member associations. The winners of the AFC Challenge Cup competitions in 2008 and 2010 qualified automatically to the 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals. These two winners were India and North Korea. It was India's first play for the Asian Cup since 1984, and North Korea's first since 1992.

The final day of qualification was 3 March 2010.

List of qualified teams

Final qualification status
  Team qualified for Asian Cup
  Team failed to qualify
Country Qualified asDate qualification was secured Previous appearances in tournament1, 2
 Qatar Hosts 29 July 2007 7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 Iraq 2007 AFC Asian Cup winner 25 July 2007 6 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 Saudi Arabia 2007 AFC Asian Cup runner-up 25 July 2007 7 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 South Korea 2007 AFC Asian Cup third place 28 July 2007 11 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 India 2008 AFC Challenge Cup winner 13 August 2008 2 (1964, 1984)
 Uzbekistan Group C runner-up 18 November 2009 4 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 Syria Group D winner 18 November 2009 4 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
 Iran Group E winner 6 January 2010 11 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 China PR Group D runner-up 6 January 2010 9 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 Japan Group A winner 6 January 2010 6 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 Bahrain Group A runner-up 6 January 2010 3 (1988, 2004, 2007)
 United Arab Emirates Group C winner 6 January 2010 7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2007)
 North Korea 2010 AFC Challenge Cup winner 27 February 2010 2 (1980, 1992)
 Australia Group B winner 3 March 2010 1 (2007)
 Kuwait Group B runner-up 3 March 2010 8 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004)
 Jordan Group E runner-up 3 March 2010 1 (2004)
1 Bold indicates champion for that year
2 Italic indicates host

Draw

The draw for the AFC Asian Cup 2011 was held on 23 April 2010 in Doha, Qatar. Qatar were seeded among the top group.[10][11]

Seeding

Seeding was announced on 22 April 2010. Qatar were automatically placed in Group A.[12]

Pot 1 (Host and Seeds) Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4

 Qatar
 Iraq
 Saudi Arabia
 South Korea

 Japan
 Australia
 Iran
 Uzbekistan

 China PR
 United Arab Emirates
 Bahrain
 Jordan

 Syria
 Kuwait
 India
 North Korea

Venues

Members of the AFC Organising Committee for AFC Asian Cup 2011 have agreed the use of five stadiums for the 2011 tournament.[13]

Doha Al Rayyan Doha
Khalifa International Stadium Ahmed bin Ali Stadium Thani bin Jassim Stadium
Capacity: 40,000 Capacity: 25,000 Capacity: 25,000
Doha Doha
Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium
Capacity: 12,000 Capacity: 14,000

Match ball

The Nike Total 90 Tracer was the official match ball of the tournament.[14]

Officials

Twelve referees and twenty four assistants were selected for the tournament:[15]

Number Referee Assistants
1 Australia Ben Williams Australia Benjamin Wilson Australia Hakan Anaz
2 Japan Yuichi Nishimura Japan Toru Sagara Japan Toshiyuki Nagi
3 South Korea Kim Dong-jin South Korea Jeong Hae-sang South Korea Jang Jun-mo
4 Malaysia Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh China Mu Yuxin Malaysia Mohd Sabri Bin Mat Daud
5 Oman Abdullah Al Hilali Kyrgyzstan Bakhadyr Kochkarov Oman Hamed Al Mayahi
6 Qatar Abdulrahman Abdou Qatar Mohammad Dharman Qatar Hassan Al Thawadi
7 Iran Mohsen Torky Iran Hassan Kamranifar Iran Reza Sokhandan
8 Singapore Malik Abdul Bashir Singapore Jeffrey Goh Singapore Haja Maidin
9 Bahrain Nawaf Shukralla Bahrain Khaled Al Allan Syria Mohammed Jawdat Nehlawi
10 United Arab Emirates Ali Al Badwawi United Arab Emirates Saleh Al Marzouqi Kuwait Yaser Marad
11 Uzbekistan Ravshan Irmatov Uzbekistan Abdukhamidullo Rasulov Uzbekistan Rafael Ilyasov
Standby Referees
Country Standby Referees
Iran Iran Alireza Faghani
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Valentin Kovalenko
Qatar Qatar Abdullah Balideh

Squads

Each country's final squad of 23 players was submitted by 28 December 2010.[16]

Group stage

All times are Arabian Standard Time (AST) – UTC+3

Tie-breaking criteria

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:[16]

  1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
  2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
  3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
  4. Goal difference in all the group matches;
  5. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
  6. Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
  7. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches; (1 point for each yellow card, 3 points for each red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for each direct red card, 4 points for each yellow card followed by a direct red card)
  8. Drawing of lots.
Key to colours in group tables
Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals

Group A

Uzbekistan surprised the group by defeating Qatar in the opening match and defeating highly favoured Kuwait. Qatar picked themselves up after the opening loss and won the remaining two games.

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Uzbekistan 321063+37
 Qatar 320152+36
 China PR 31114404
 Kuwait 300317−60
7 January 2011
Qatar 0–2 Uzbekistan
8 January 2011
Kuwait 0–2 China PR
12 January 2011
Uzbekistan 2–1 Kuwait
China PR 0–2 Qatar
16 January 2011
Qatar 3–0 Kuwait
China PR 2–2 Uzbekistan

Group B

Jordan were major underdogs going into the group against powerhouses Japan and 2007 runners up Saudi Arabia, but surprised the football world by taking second place in the group.

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Japan 321082+67
 Jordan 321042+27
 Syria 310245−13
 Saudi Arabia 300318−70
9 January 2011
Japan 1–1 Jordan
Saudi Arabia 1–2 Syria
13 January 2011
Jordan 1–0 Saudi Arabia
Syria 1–2 Japan
17 January 2011
Saudi Arabia 0–5 Japan
Jordan 2–1 Syria

Group C

Group C went down exactly as most people predicted with the two giants in Australia and South Korea going through.

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Australia 321061+57
 South Korea 321073+47
 Bahrain 310265+13
 India 3003313−100
10 January 2011
India 0–4 Australia
South Korea 2–1 Bahrain
14 January 2011
Australia 1–1 South Korea
Bahrain 5–2 India
18 January 2011
South Korea 4–1 India
Australia 1–0 Bahrain

Group D

Powerhouses Iran and defending champions Iraq both went through as expected, but the surprise of the group was the performance of the United Arab Emirates who scored no goals and had a player score an own goal in two consecutive matches. Amongst all teams in the Group stage (in all four groups), Iran was the only team to win all its games and advance with the full 9 points.

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Iran 330061+59
 Iraq 320132+16
 North Korea 301202−21
 United Arab Emirates 301204−41
11 January 2011
North Korea 0–0 United Arab Emirates
Iraq 1–2 Iran
15 January 2011
Iran 1–0 North Korea
United Arab Emirates 0–1 Iraq
18 January 2011
Iraq 1–0 North Korea
United Arab Emirates 0–3 Iran

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final
                   
21 January - Doha        
  Uzbekistan  2
25 January - Doha
  Jordan  1  
  Uzbekistan  0
22 January - Doha
    Australia  6  
  Australia (a.e.t.)  1
29 January - Doha
  Iraq  0  
  Australia  0
21 January - Doha
    Japan (a.e.t.)  1
  Japan  3
25 January - Doha
  Qatar  2  
  Japan (pen.)  2 (3) Third place
22 January - Doha
    South Korea  2 (0)  
  Iran  0   Uzbekistan  2
  South Korea (a.e.t.)  1     South Korea  3
28 January - Doha

All times are Arabian Standard Time (AST) – UTC+3

Quarter-finals

21 January 2011
16:30
Japan  3 – 2  Qatar
Kagawa  29', 71'
Inoha  89'		 Report Soria  13'
Fábio César  63'

21 January 2011
19:30
Uzbekistan  2 – 1  Jordan
Bakayev  47', 49' Report B. Bani Yaseen  58'

22 January 2011
16:30
Australia  1 – 0 (a.e.t.)  Iraq
Kewell  118' Report

22 January 2011
19:30
Iran  0 – 1 (a.e.t.)  South Korea
Report Yoon Bit-Garam  105'
Qatar SC Stadium, Doha
Attendance: 7,111
Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)

Semi-finals

25 January 2011
19:30
Uzbekistan  0 – 6  Australia
Report Kewell  5'
Ognenovski  35'
Carney  65'
Emerton  73'
Valeri  82'
Kruse  83'

Third place playoff

28 January 2011
18:00
Uzbekistan  2 – 3  South Korea
Geynrikh  45' (pen.), 53' Report Koo Ja-Cheol  18'
Ji Dong-Won  28', 39'

Final

29 January 2011
18:00
Australia  0 – 1 (a.e.t.)  Japan
Report Lee  109'

Awards

Winners

 AFC Asian Cup 2011 Winners 

Japan
Fourth title

Individual Awards

Top Goalscorers Most Valuable Player Fair Play Award
South Korea Koo Ja-Cheol Japan Keisuke Honda  South Korea

Scorers

With five goals, Koo Ja-Cheol is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 90 goals were scored by 60 different players, with three of them credited as own goals.

5 goals:

4 goals:

3 goals:

2 goals:

1 goal:

1 own goal:

2 own goals:

Team of the tournament

Goalkeepers Defenders Midfielders Forwards

South Korea Jung Sung-Ryong (South Korea)

Japan Yuto Nagatomo (Japan)
Australia Lucas Neill (Australia)
Uzbekistan Odil Akhmedov (Uzbekistan)
South Korea Cha Du-Ri (South Korea)

Japan Keisuke Honda (Japan)
Japan Makoto Hasebe (Japan)
South Korea Koo Ja-Cheol (South Korea)
Uzbekistan Server Djeparov (Uzbekistan)

Japan Shinji Okazaki (Japan)
Australia Harry Kewell (Australia)

Final positions

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Eff
1 Japan 6420146+81477.8%
2 Australia 6411132+111372.2%
3 South Korea 6420137+61477.8%
4 Uzbekistan 63121013−31055.6%
Eliminated in the Quarterfinals
5 Iran 430162+4975.0%
6 Jordan 421154+1758.3%
7 Qatar 420275+2650.0%
8 Iraq 4202330650.0%
Eliminated in the Group Stage
9 China PR 3111440444.4%
10 Bahrain 310265+1333.3%
11 Syria 310245−1333.3%
12 North Korea 301202−2111.1%
13 United Arab Emirates 301204−4111.1%
14 Kuwait 300317−600.0%
15 Saudi Arabia 300318−700.0%
16 India 3003313−1000.0%

Sponsorship

Official sponsors Official supporters

Theme song

For marketing of the event, the organisers opted for the slogan "Yalla Asia" with a song sung by international artists Jay Sean and Karl Wolf, featuring Radhika Vekaria. Yalla Asia was composed and written by Radhika Vekaria, Max Herman and Zoulikha El Fassi. Max Herman produced the record for Zoul Projects 2011.

Concerns and controversies

The AFC Asian Cup 2011 was not without controversy as concerns were risen about the extremely low crowds at most Asian Cup games not featuring the host nation Qatar. The average attendance was just 12,006, much lower than the previous AFC Asian Cup tournaments. North Korea and the United Arab Emirates both had the lowest attendance numbers with approximately 3,000 and 6,000 attendances respectively.[17] The final match between Japan and Australia saw as many as 3,000 to 10,000 fans with valid tickets denied entry to the stadium[18] which then allegedly sparked small skirmishes among fans, "It was just incredibly badly handled. There were kids and families, not causing any problem, being confronted by riot police and being told they weren't getting in," according to Andy Richardson, Al Jazeera's sports correspondent.[19] The AFC stated that the gates were closed early for security concerns and organisers did not anticipate an influx of Japanese and Australian fans. The organising committee has offered to refund all tickets not redeemed at the match.[20]

After staging the 2006 Asian Games,[21] this Asian Cup was being closely watched as an indicator to see how Qatar copes with hosting a major international football tournament[22] in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

References

  1. 1 2 "Qatar confirmed as cup host". Fox Sports. 29 July 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2007.
  2. 1 2 "Qatar to host AFC Asian Cup in 2011". Asian Football Confederation. 29 July 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2007.
  3. ↑ "Japan down Aussies to make history". FIFA.com. 29 January 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  4. ↑ "Australia 0 - 1 Japan". ESPN Soccernet. 29 January 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  5. ↑ "Asian Cup final 'rematch' kick-off time set". Asian Football Confederation. 23 April 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  6. ↑ "Nations make Asian Cup bid". Fox Sports. 14 February 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2007.
  7. ↑ "Chances to host 2011 Asian Cup fading". Sydney Morning Herald. 13 February 2007. Retrieved 13 February 2007.
  8. ↑ Qatar formally submits Asian Cup 2011 bid AFC Asian Cup Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ India withdraw 2011 AFC Asian Cup interest AFC Asian Cup Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ "Unity the theme at AFC Executive Committee meeting". AFC. 25 November 2009. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  11. ↑ "AFC Asian Cup 2011 Finals draw on April 23". AFC. 23 February 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  12. ↑ "AFC Asian Cup 2011 final draw mechanics". The-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 22 April 2010. Archived from the original on 10 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "AFC Organising Committee for AFC Asian Cup 2011". AFC. 14 July 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
  14. ↑ "The Tracer's excitement for AC 2011". The-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  15. ↑ "2011 AFC Asian Cup referees". Asian Football Confederation.
  16. 1 2 "AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011 Competition Regulations" (PDF). AFC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 November 2011.
  17. ↑ "AFC Asian Cup Statistics - ESPN FC". go.com.
  18. ↑ "Asian Cup ticket-holders denied entry to finale". ESPN.com.
  19. ↑ "Five things we've learned from Qatar's Asian Cup". CNN. 3 February 2011.
  20. ↑ http://www.the-afc.com/en/afc-asian-cup-news/33102-afc-statement-afc-asian-cup-qatar-2011-final-match-tickets-and-refund%5B%5D
  21. ↑ AFP: Qatar puts Middle East football on map
  22. ↑ "Qatar: From obscure desert kingdom to World Cup host". cnn.com.
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