The AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 was a story full of exciting moments, unexpected happenings and a lot of good football. The tournament ended with China being crowned the champions for the ninth time in their history after they defeated South Korea 3-2 in a thrilling match at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday. On the other hand, Vietnam registered a 2-1 win over Chinese Taipei in the last of three playoffs to book the fifth and final direct AFC slot in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand.
Chinese captain Wang Shanshan won the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament award. Their goalkeeper Zhu Yu was deemed the best goalkeeper, Sam Kerr took the top scorer award while South Korea were awarded the Fair Play award.
With the Asian Cup coming to an end, News18.com takes a look at the takeaways from the tournament.
CHINA ARE BACK
It was after a gap of 14 years that China featured in an Asian Cup final and after 16 long years of wait, they won the continental championship. In 47 years of Asian Cup history, China have been the most successful nation with nine titles but since the turn of the 2000s, other teams like North Korea, Japan and Australia grew in prominence and China somewhat fell behind.
The 2022 Asian Cup showed that China are back in business and have the nuanced gameplay and heart to get back to the top of Asian football. In both their semi-final and final, China showed that never-give-up attitude to get comeback wins. With players like Wang Shanshan, Wang Shuang and Tang Jiali in the team, China were clinical and mostly important showed the never-give-up attitude that eventually took them to the title.
Next year at the World Cup, there will be at least six Asian nations, including China, and going by the quality of the Asian Cup, everything will not only depend on Japan and Australia.
INSPIRING PERFORMANCE FROM THE MINNOWS
Asian Cup will surely be remembered for the inspiring performances from nations and in matches when it was not expected. Among the ones that caught the eye the most was the Philippines.
According to FIFA rankings updated till December 10, 2021, Philippines are ranked 64th in the world and are 13th in Asia but they punched way above their weight and made the semi-finals of the tournament to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in their history.
Philippines, in their first match of the tournament, beat Thailand, who are ranked six places ahead of them. They held Australia at 0-0 till the 51st minute of their match and then dominated Indonesia (as expected) in their last group game. They led Chinese Taipei for the longest time during their quarter-finals and then beat them on penalties to make a completely unexpected semi-final appearance.
What stood out about them was the determination they displayed throughout the tournament. Philippines had the advantage of physicality against a few teams and used that extremely well. They showed astuteness at the back and played like a unit to achieve a result beyond what was expected of them and attributed to sheer belief in the team.
In the playoffs, Chinese Taipei also bested a slightly higher-ranked Thailand and showed grit and fight against AFC No.6 Vietnam. They will have a chance to make the World Cup when they play in the inter-confederation playoffs next year. Thailand, on the other hand, suffered only a close 2-1 loss to Australia.
Another massive result was South Korea’s upset of Australia in the quarter-finals. Australia were guilty of missing quite a few chances in the match but South Korea displayed smart tactics to stifle the Sam Kerr-led side. South Korea had their plan sorted and executed it to perfection to get a 1-0 win.
Philippines and Vietnam qualified for their first-ever appearance in the World Cup and these results pointed to the overall growth of Asian women’s football, which makes for an interesting future.
CONTINENTAL GLORY CONTINUES TO ELUDE JI SO-YUN
South Korea’s No.10 Ji So-yun is one of the most well-known names in the world of women’s football. She is one of the best players in the world and has 137 caps and 59 goals (updated figures after the Asian Cup) with the national team.
The 30-year-old playmaker was expected to bring all her expertise from Chelsea, with whom she has won 10 titles in eight years, including the quadruple in the 2020-21 season. She very well did that scoring in four of the team’s six games and controlled the game play throughout.
After all the accolades at the club level, all that was left for Ji was the continental glory and she was extremely close to that when South Korea led China 2-0 at half time in the final. However, China forged a remarkable comeback, beat Korea and left Ji still hunting for the big glory with the national team.
SAM KERR ONLY GETS A CONSOLATION
Kerr was the biggest name in India as the Asian Cup began. The Australian superstar even achieved the record of being the highest goalscorer for her country, men’s or women’s, in the first game of the tournament.
She won the award for the top scorer of the tournament with seven goals but that would only be a consolation for her.
Australia were primed to win the tournament and were the big favourites but they were upset by finalists South Korea. Her journey in the tournament was only four games and that’s not something she would be satisfied with.
Comments
0 comment