Qatar was in a precarious position heading into their match with China. With Uzbekistan already qualified, they needed a win, or else a draw would risk a ‘resting’ Uzbekistan side to fall to China with a draw, or simply leave the tournament as hosts in the groups.
Yusef Ahmed took care of matters by scoring a goal which was so good the Qatari federation would’ve requested it count for two at halftime had he not rendered the point moot by scoring a second just moments before the half. (And at this moment, halftime 2-0 is where we stand.)
See both of Ahmed’s goals and all of the goals from the tournament on our Asian Cup goals page.
Now that the first round of Asian Cup group matches are in the bag, the tournament is starting to come into focus a little. Some teams are already in a must-win (or at least must-not-lose) situation, and others are one win away from the knockouts. There have been 19 goals so far (see them all here), and luckily only one of those has been from the penalty spot, and we have a few goalscorers who have already racked up multiple goals. Here is the list, including all sixteen goalscorers so far.
Updated 11-Jan-2011
Each * indicates a penalty
1st (Tied three ways – 2 goals each) Abdelrazaq Al Hussain (Syria) Tim Cahill (Australia) Ja-Cheol Koo (South Korea)
4th (Tied thirteen ways – 1 goals each) Faouzi Aaish (Bahrain)* Hasan Abdel Fattah (Jordan) Odil Ahmedov (Uzbekistan) Taisir Al-Jassim (Saudi Arabia) Zhouxiang Deng (China) Server Djeparov (Uzbekistan) Brett Holman (Australia) Harry Kewell (Australia) Younis Mahmoud (Iraq) Eman Mobali (Iran) Gholamreza Rezaei (Iran) Maya Yoshida (Japan) Linpeng Zhang (China)
Harry Kewell has called the Asian Cup a ‘mini-World Cup’, which seems rather appropriate given the nature of the first round. There were the mildly colossal upsets (Uzbekistan over Qatar and Syria over Saudi Arabia), the big upset which will wind up a small upset (Jordan drawing with Japan) and the big boys takin’ care of business (Korea, Australia, Iran).
A grand chunk of the spectrum of football possibilities, really, with bonus these-two-were-in-a-war-not-too-long-ago derby between Iraq and Iran, in which the latter righted the natural order of things and return volleyed the champions back to firm underdog status.
Scenarios Group A: The group can be decided with wins by Uzbekistan and China, while the losers from the first round are both out with a loss. Home sweet home…not quite.
Group B: Saudi Arabia canned coach Jose Peseiro after they were upset by Syria, and will have years free for reflection should they lose to Jordan, while Syria, of all teams, can seal a spot in the kayos with victory. Group C: Winner of Australia v South Korea is in; loser of Bahrain v India is out.
Group D: Iran is in with a win, Iraq is out with a loss.
Twas something of a foregone conclusion that China would bring the fun to the Asian Cup, be it from the realm of the not quite legal or shit-I-hope-he-has-a-good-lawyer. They seem to be as critical as anyone about their inspired attempt to combine martial arts and football, which makes it okay to fire them firmly under the bus.
It wasn’t really expected that they would extract similar behavior from their opponents, like Kuwait’s Nada Masaed, who was so moved by Felipe Melo’s extracurriculars from a seated position, he booted his Chinese foe in the dumplings. Masaed was then sent off, and possibly cried.
Is there a conspiracy to be had that he was hired by the Chinese gov’t to serve as an agent abroad for population control? Probably.
My name is Mamudu Nurudeen popularly known as Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious born on 25 Feb. 1985, to Mr Mamudu and Hajia Safura at Bawku Central in the Upper East Region of Ghana.
I am currently a student of Sunyani Polytechnic offering HND General Agriculture.
I am also a freelance Journalist, a motivational speaker and the founder of PERSONALITY AND HUMAN RELATIONS (PHR)
PLEASE THIS WEBSITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Now that the first round of 
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