2015 Asian Cup

Looking forward to Oz vs. Oman tonight.

My girlfriend is in Oman on holiday at present (her parents teach English at the university there in Muscat) and she follows the football, so will lead to some interesting banter tomorrow on the internet. She supports Oman and went to the international school there for foreign kids years ago.

A nice peaceful Middle Eastern country that avoids the headlines.

I hope Nathan Burns gets another run and scores - but that Oman wins.

That way it'll be win-win for me! 

Saw that in the paper today - nice story. He's quite the media sensation!

SK anthem ended like Advance Australia Fair!  Hope they win..

Korea are playing like sh!t.

An Ernie-like reaction to the goal from Uli.

Finally. That's what happens whenyou take the ball down the side.

#nolongballplease

Who is the commentator with the regional accent? He's good.

Yeah they've gone to the dogs.

.

Global Football politics is beyond my understanding. How can Palestine be playing in an international competition, when they are not a recognised country? If the intention of including Palestine is to support their claim as a national state, I wholeheartedly support their inclusion. 
However, this support surely has to have a non-partisan approach, demonstrated by including Israel in the same competition, as they have been in the past. The precedent of cultural enemies competing in this continental competition has been set by North & South Korea
An invitation to an Oceania team to compete in the Asian Cup seems a much shorter step than inviting an unrecognised country to compete

If global politics in football turns you away from this statement, I direct you to the words of one of club football's greatest managers:
'Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.'

  

Sorry but 135 UN states recognise Palestine as a country, so jog on they deserve to be there (even if they are a bit shark).

These matches are getting better as the torny goes on. First few were shark and boring. But these asian countries are dirty players, so many dives and dangerous tackles.

Great!  Palestine needs full recognition as a country.
However the difference between UN motions and UN actions/ official recognitions is often a huge embarrassment to the UN and the actions of individual member countries 
Palestine should be a recognised country, with no qualifications, which regrettably, is not the UN's position : "On 29 November 2012, the UN General Assembly passed a motion changing Palestine's "entity" status to "non-member observer state" by a vote of 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions

I'd be delighted to be proved wrong! 

btw: I wasn't questioning Palestine's right to compete in the competition.I was stating my inability to understand global football politics/decisons :-) 

Kuwait had put up a good fight here, probably deserve a draw.

Fully expected them to crumble after conceding but that was a brave effort. Enjoyable game too.

I missed most of the second half.  Did Korea revert to fapping around and getting pushed off the ball?

I think they took a leaf out of North Korea's playbook of lobbing it over the opposition defence

They were much better. Defended stoutly but couldn't capitalise on their many counterattacks. 

That's the sort of hard game that might serve them well later on in the tournament.

Funny how Australia & New Zealand have no diplomatic recognition.

Hopefully encouraging...

Can't see them getting passed Oz or Japan with the kind of football they've played in the last two games.

Well it was a game of two halves and in the end, Korea Republic was the winner :-)  

Could the referee not let the goal stand after blowing for the penalty?

You'd think so. Very odd decision.

Glad the Aussies are sticking it to Oman. I guess they are through to the next round with one game to play even if they lose against S.Korea.

Aussies are looking class. It is a bit of a shame Burnsy didn't get a start. Surely he'd offer more than Leckie who every game runs around a lot and then just fluffs his crosses/through-balls. Bring on Burns I say.

Would still like to finish first though one would imagine.

I think Aussie have looked the best team so far (granted, Japan didn't even really have to try last night),

What has Tomi Juric ever done (besides the winning goal in the ACL final) that he gets on ahead of Burns? Personally I can't understand the hype.

Juric finishing and passing as he's been practising at WSW

Different types of players tbf. Juric more central. Burns wider. 

Yeah fair enough, I guess I just mean if you're bringing on an attacking sub, Burns is in better form and for me would be the more dangerous.

But basically I'm just being one-eyed and want to see Nathan get a run...

Hope you watched that goal.

haha that wasn't a bad finish huh?

The A-league has to take some credit for the quality of players plying their trade there and the careers it has launched, evident with this Aussie team.

Yes, to be fair, that was a nice finish.

Would want to avoid Japan until the final too.

Brad Jones in this squad? 

No don't think so. Ironically, didn't get selected just as he finally got a run of starts for Liverpool after all these years haha

Don't be daft.

Fantastic cross from Leckie for the fourth goal.

Aussies looking good.

Shame Burns didn't get a run.

Hopefully we'll see him against Korea.