Asian Cup's (AFC) GROUP 'C' Teams Review

Bhaichung Bhutia

It has taken India 27 years to qualify for its third Asian Cup and few are expecting any fireworks from a massive country that has never realised its footballing potential.
India are in Qatar courtesy of winning the eight-nation AFC Challenge Cup as hosts in 2008 - a tournament of lower-tier Asian teams.
It will be their first outing at the Asian Cup since 1984 where they failed to make any impact, in contrast to their maiden appearance in 1964 when they finished runners-up.
A repeat of that performance is highly unlikely with Bobby Houghton’s squad more concerned with preventing any embarrassing scorelines, with the might of Australia, South Korea and Bahrain awaiting them in a tough Group C.
Houghton, who has been in charge of India since 2006, has also been struggling with a spate of injuries to key players, including captain and striker Baichung Bhutia, although he has been named in their squad.
The 63-year-old has been around long enough to know that a thrashing in Qatar will spell the end of the road for him, despite having a contract that runs until 2013. The 1950s and 60s was India’s golden era, with the national team winning the Asian Games gold medals in 1951 and 1962 while becoming the first Asian nation to make it to the Olympics semi-finals at Melbourne in 1956.
But since those glory days, football has gone backwards, with infrastructure for its development poor compared to other countries in the region.
Currently ranked a lowly 142nd in the world, recent successes have been limited to the South Asian region with victories in the Nehru Cup in 2007 and 2009 before their AFC Challenge Cup heroics handed them a ticket to Doha.
They begin their campaign against Australia on January 10.

Australia look to make amends
A formidable Australia brings a powerful squad led by Everton’s Tim Cahill to the Asian Cup as the team looks to make amends for their disappointing tournament debut four years ago.
After switching from Oceania to the Asian Football Confederation, the Socceroos approached their first Asian Cup in 2007 confident of winning but learned some harsh realities about playing in the region.
They struggled with the heat and humidity in Thailand and Vietnam and crashed out in the quarter-finals to Japan.
Four years on, they are less complacent and more conditioned to Asian football. The milder winter conditions in Qatar should suit them better and German coach Holger Osieck has high hopes.
“I have the confidence that this team is pretty strong and they are ready to really produce something,” he said when naming his squad.
“Of course we are going there to have the best possible success.”
They are in a tough Group C alongside fellow regional heavyweights South Korea, as well as Bahrain and minnows India.
Only the top two progress to the knockout rounds.
Key players from the 2007 squad—Cahill, Harry Kewell, Lucas Neill, Mark Schwarzer and Brett Emerton—remain the core of the team.
They are, however, all past 30 and the Qatar tournament is likely to be their Asian Cup swansong.
As well as his big-name stars, Osieck has brought in two uncapped players, including Melbourne Victory striker Robbie Kruse and Nathan Coe, goalkeeper with Denmark’s Sonderjysk Elitesport.
Kruse, 22, replaces towering injured forward Josh Kennedy on the back of a season in which he has scored 10 goals in 15 games for the Victory.
He is one of four players in the squad from Australia’s A-League along with Brisbane Roar’s Matt McKay, Jason Culina from Gold Coast United and Wellington’s Jade North.
Joining them is Asian Player of the Year Sasa Ognenovski who made his debut for Australia in a recent friendly against Egypt and who this season led South Korean club Seongnam Ilhwa to the AFC Champions League title.
Australia opens its tournament against India on January 10 at Al Sadd Stadium ahead of a crunch match with South Korea four days later before facing Bahrain on January 18.

Bahrain face daunting task
Tiny Bahrain failed to get into the knockout rounds at the last Asian Cup in 2007 and with Australia and South Korea awaiting them in Doha a similar fate could be on the cards.
Avoiding last place in Group C must be their priority as they come into the tournament riding a poor run of form.
Their outcome is in the hands of former international Salman Sharida, who recently took over when Austrian Josef Hickersberger quit to return to his previous club Al Wahda of United Arab Emirates.
But Sharida, who lacks international experience, has enjoyed little success so far, and with failure at the tournament often seeing heads roll, he has his work cut out.
Under Sharida, Bahrain were held goalless by Uganda in November, followed by a 2-0 loss at the hands of fellow Asian Cup finalists Syria.
They were then held 1-1 in the Gulf Cup opener by Oman before losing 3-2 to Iraq, the defending Asian Cup champions.
The Gulf Cup turned into a disaster with the team only managing a point from their group—emphasizing the difficulty of their task in Qatar.
A 1-1 draw in a warm-up game with Uzbekistan last week failed to lift the gloom before they bounced back to beat Jordan 2-1 in another friendly for a much-needed morale boost.
While Bahrain, who are in their third consecutive Asian Cup, haven’t made too many footballing headlines recently, they were plastered over the papers in September when they found themselves at the centre of an elaborate scam.
That beat Togo 3-0 in Manama in a warm-up to the West Asian Football Federation Championship only to find that the visitors were a fraud, masquerading as the national squad.
Amusing as it was, it came at a cost with several people, including an ex-Togo sports minister, being detained.
There is no chance of that happening in Doha with Australia and South Korea boosting top-rated teams full of European-based stars.