FIFA World Cup | Beware the Asian march

With three teams from the AFC making it to the Round of 16, and two others exceeding expectations, Asian countries have forced traditional giants to sit up and take notice at the 2022 FIFA World Cup

After two weeks of intense action, the group stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup is done. With the advent of the knockout rounds, comes a unique feat for teams from the Asian Football Confederation — three out of the six nations from Asia have made it past the group stage for the first time ever. And while South Korea, Japan and Australia (who are included in the Asian confederation) beat the odds to progress, Saudi Arabia and Iran gave good accounts of themselves.

Down memory lane | When Asian, African and North American nations challenged the giants of football 

There weren’t just stray results that made Asian teams stand out. Japan bested both Germany and Spain to top Group E. Saudi Arabia recorded the biggest upset in World Cup history by defeating Argentina before frustrating Mexico in a 1-2 loss to prevent the North Americans from qualifying. South Korea held Uruguay before prevailing over Portugal in a crucial Group G clash. Iran, though crushed by England, stunned the Welsh with two match-winning goals in the death and then narrowly lost to USA. And Australia beat Tunisia and Euro 2020 semifinalists Denmark.

Notably, all of those results were achieved against higher-ranked teams. The only blemish on the Asian campaign this time would be the performance of hosts Qatar, who failed to chalk up even a single point in their group.

It is perhaps fitting that the two best World Cups for Asian teams so far have both been held in Asia. The 2002 edition continues to be the best collective Asian outing as hosts Japan and South Korea made it out of their groups, with Korea even reaching the semifinals. And following the performances at Qatar, Asian teams are on a high at a crucial time in world football, when the decision to expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams from the next edition is hotly debated.

The argument against the expansion has been that more Asian and African teams would qualify just to make up the numbers, leading to mismatches and lopsided scores against the European and Latin American sides. But as the Qatar World Cup has shown, Asian teams have evolved from also-rans and whipping boys to banana skins for ambitious sides and even giant-slayers who can top their groups.

Attempts to draw patterns, scrutinise and field explanations as to how these low-ranked sides excelled are under way in the camps of the defeated big guns. They range from the home-crowd effect from which Arab nations benefited; to the fatigue of overworked superstars dragged into an international tournament in the middle of a domestic season; and even the fact that most Asian squads have a higher-proportion of homegrown players, allowing them to be better prepared ahead of the winter World Cup.