While most national teams were enjoying a quite year-end period, almost half of Asia’s 18 remaining FIFA World Cup 26™ hopefuls were in action as two key regional tournaments were completed in Southeast and West Asia.
At the ASEAN Championship, played across nine different nations, Indonesia fell to an unexpected group stage exit that ultimately hastened the exit of head coach Shin Taeyong, with Patrick Kluivert this week announced as the new man in charge on the Garuda hot-seat. Vietnam saw off Thailand 5-3 on aggregate in the final, with the second leg played in front of almost 50,000 fans in Bangkok.
In the west, Bahrain claimed a second regional title as they downed Oman in the final of the Arabian Gulf Cup in front of 58,000 supporters in Kuwait City, with a trio of World Cup aspirants, Iraq, Qatar and United Arab Emirates falling in the groups.
Arabian Gulf Cup
Hosted in Kuwait, the 26th edition of the Gulf Cup was a memorable one for Bahrain who won the title for just the second time, seeing off Oman 2-1 in the final. Attacking midfielder Mohamed Marhoon was the star attraction, finishing as both the tournament’s top scorer and Most Valuable Player, while fan favourite Ebrahim Lutfalla was named the event’s Best Goalkeeper.
For losing finalists Oman, it was also a tournament from which they’ll take confidence, having drawn with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates and picked up massive wins over both Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait, currently struggling in World Cup qualification, were perhaps the surprise of the tournament as they went undefeated in the group stage, before falling to a 1-0 loss against Bahrain in the semis.
Having made a slow start to life under returning coach Herve Renard, Saudi Arabia were looking to dominate things at regional level but a shock opening loss at the hands of Bahrain set the tone for a tournament in which they were stunningly dumped out by Oman in the last four.
Defending champions Iraq were expected to be among the contenders again this time out. However, back-to-back losses – against Bahrain and Saudi Arabia – saw them make a disappointing group stage exit.
While the United Arab Emirates would have been disappointed with an early exit given they’ve been in solid form in World Cup qualification, the headline story was the continued struggles of previous World Cup hosts Qatar. Fresh off a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of the UAE in November’s World Cup qualifiers, Al-Annabi picked up just two points in the group stage of the Gulf Cup to finish bottom of the section.
ASEAN Championship
Indonesia are the only remaining World Cup hopeful among the ten Southeast Asian nations that fought out the ASEAN Championship across December and January. Having named a youthful squad, with only one of their fleet of European-based players featuring, it was a disappointing showing from the Garuda and one that hastened the exit of coach Shin Taeyong.
Having scrapped past Myanmar in Yangon with a late own goal, the side was then held to a 3-3 draw by underdogs Laos before falling to eventual champions Vietnam on the road and then the Philippines at home.
Barely a fortnight after that shock group stage exit came the news that Shin had been sacked, replaced by Kluivert, ahead of four crucial World Cup qualifiers over the next six months.
