When the Australian Football Authority announced that it was renouncing its place in the Oceania Federation to join the Asian, Australian fans began to plan their victory celebrations for the 2007 Asian Cup. The reality has been a little different, as the Socceroos only managed to score a last-gasp equaliser against mighty Oman before crashing 3-1 against Iraq. That is the Iraq team forced to live in exile and in fear of a message from home every day of the deaths of their loved ones. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Premiership stars Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill were supposed to blow away the opposition; manager Graham Arnold has been talking up the team’s chances and saying that only reaching the would meet expectations.
Finally, third time lucky, at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok last night, the Australian team came good and defeated the hosts Thailand 4-0. The result rather flattered the Australians as Thailand fought hard after going behind to an early goal for more than an hour before three sucker punches in the last ten minutes lent a lop-sided air to the final result. However, at least the gold and green shirts looked energetic and interested, which they had not done in the first two games. Since Iraq simultaneously secured a goalless draw with Oman, it means Iraq will qualify for the quarter-final stage in first place and Australia will squeeze out the unlucky Thais to take second place.
Their opponents will be Vietnam and Japan. The latter will replay their 2006 World Cup struggle against Australia while the former show the benefit of playing with diligence, energy and as much flair as can be mustered. The Vietnamese game has its fair share of problems, not least with respect to corruption, which has led to a wave of arrests of players, managers, referees and gamblers and bookies. However, there is now a thriving national league in Vietnam and this has increased the level of fitness and competitiveness of the Vietnamese players – something that should long ago have happened in Thailand. The Vietnamese team many not actually be very good and Iraq will begin the game as favourite but they have still got past a tricky group which also contained Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. This success, together with some promising displays from Indonesia, suggest that Southeast Asian football may not be as moribund as it sometimes appears.
