2015 Asian Cup

China doing well so far against Saudi Arabia. 0-0 after 26 mins

Hao Junmin is back from injury well and truly.

Saudi barely in it over the last 10 mins.

Quite impressed with China. They've played some very nice football.

Yes - very unusual!  It looks like Hao Junmin is their creative outlet.  He seems to be making the difference.  He was out of the team for a long time due to injury.

This will be a test for the team.  China has run out of puff in the 2nd half for many of their recent games.

Hope China batter them. Cannot stand anything to do with Saudi Arabia. Fudgeing backward barbaric sharkhole.

Dadi-esque penalty from Saudi (phew!).

Was a shocker. China definitely on the back foot now though.

GOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

Good thing I chucked some money on after the penalty. 

LAst corner, time up.

"what a roar in Brisbane"

#aleaguepun

Well done China. A tiny bit of luck but overall they deserved the win.

Wang Dalei MOTM, followed closely by Hao Junmin.

Zheng Zhi a gritty captain's knock

Great win for China

Saudi could have got a draw and had opportunities to win, but they were pretty poor with their finishing.

A good clash with Uzbekistan coming up mid-week - the team should feel confident.

Looking forward to seeing UAE tonight, they had some young awesome superstars at the Olympics a few years ago but were unlucky. We saw their quality against the All Whites not long ago. They could be a good dark horse this tournament.

The Saudi players all looked terrified every time they got into the final third. China look to have a lot of potential though, I'm looking forward to seeing more of them.

China does have potential. It has a lot of internal challenges and a small pool of players, but many of the clubs are putting in place grass roots programmes.

Gao Hongbo was the coach several years back and had a youth policy for the Nat team, but when CFA kowtowed to a major sponsor and brought in Comacho, all that good work was undone in under 2years.

Perrin has reintroduced younger players but surprisingly omitted arguably one of the most talented players (Zhang Xizhe) from the squad as well as some interesting choices in the starting line up.

Jury still out on Perrin, but  the side is looking better these days and a result like this will do wonders for self belief.

Qatar 1-0 up against UAE against the run of play.

1-1 now. UAE got this.

A-league-esque defending for the goal.

I could watch Omar Abdulrahman all day, he is such a beautiful player.

UAE winning me $$$. Go on lads!!

What a tasty little combination that was.

I have only turned on the tv and seen bits and pieces (and generally I have no clue who is playing or what the score is)  - but is the standard pretty average?

Qatar were terrible, UAE big chance to win this group and go far. Omar was just putting on a festival of wonderful flicks and passes in 2nd half. Maybe the closest the world has seen to Stojkovic in that regard. They could be a chance to qualify for next World Cup actually, but wait and see how they go against Iran I guess.

Looking forward to watching Iran again, admired their grit at the word cup, hints of explosive coutner-attack football within the team. Be good to see it against a lesser/equal opponent.

Australia's finest referee in charge of our second game.

That Iranian with the combover isn't fooling anyone.

Will always have a soft spot for Bahrain due to that fateful night almost 5 years 2 months ago...

Nice header Iran.

Bugger.

That was coming. Bahrain started well but the last 15 minutes of the half they looked spent already. 

Brilliant atmosphere there. I'm such a lazy bugger, should really have gone to this one.

Get in Iran! This Asian Cup betting is a piece of piss.

Go Bahrain.

Love how the commentators started talking about Iran pissing all over the Aussies at the MCG in 97.

Ben Williams "overly zealous"? Surely not.

..and for three of that side being imprisoned and tortured by the government not long after playing the All Whites for what the government said was "subversive activity".

Several of those players from the World Cup qualifier games were subsequently banned from ever playing again for the national team.

Several of Bahrain's u-23 squad coached by Anthony Hudson were more recently imprisoned a year ago.

Crap government controlled by the absolute monarch king - rule by the Sunni minority royal family is unpopular with the majority Shi'a population.