The announcement of the Asian Cup draw, which determines the strongest in Asia, is approaching one day ahead.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will hold the 2023 Asian Cup draw ceremony at Katara Opera House in Doha, Qatar, on the 11th at 8:00 pm (Korean time).
A total of 24 countries will be drawn into 6 groups of 4 teams in the Asian Cup. The 1st and 2nd place teams in each group and the 4 best performing teams among the 3rd place teams form the Round of 16 tournament.
Originally, the event was scheduled to be held this summer. However, due to the Corona 19 incident, China returned the hosting rights and postponed it. The host country will also be changed to Qatar, and it will open in January 2024.
It is a long-cherished tournament in Korea. Despite claiming to be the leader of Asia, it has been far from normal. Starting with the first tournament in 1956, they succeeded in winning two consecutive championships, but that was it. They haven’t lifted the trophy since 1960. It is still an unresolved task even after putting forward top players such as Cha Beom-geun, Park Ji-sung, and Son Heung-min.
Coach Jürgen Klinsmann, who took over in March, also emphasized winning the Asian Cup ahead of the World Cup. “I have a goal of winning the Asian Cup, and I want to be evaluated as a result,” he said at a press conference for his appointment. In addition, he declared, “As a short-term goal, I will run toward winning the Asian Cup for 10 months.”
Korea, ranked 27th in the FIFA rankings, belonged to pot 1 along with host country Qatar, Japan (20th), Iran (24th), Australia (29th) and Saudi Arabia (54th). Nations in the same pot will not meet in the group stage.
Iraq (67th), the United Arab Emirates (72nd), Oman (73rd), Uzbekistan (74th), China (81st) and Jordan (84th) were tied to pot 2. Like Port 2, there is no opponent to put your mind at ease. First, Iraq and the UAE were together in the final qualifiers for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. At that time, Korea recorded 1 win and 1 draw against Iraq and 1 win and 1 loss against UAE. Although it has lost some of its old reputation, Uzbekistan and tough China are not welcome opponents either.
Pot 3 was tied to Bahrain (85th), Syria (90th), Palestine (93rd), Vietnam (95th), Kyrgyzstan (96th) and Lebanon (99th). In the round of 16 of the last Asian Cup against Bahrain, they won after extra bloody battles. We met and won in the group stage of the same tournament as Kyrgyzstan. 먹튀검증
They faced Syria and Lebanon in the final World Cup qualifiers in Qatar. Two victories over Syria and Lebanon. The two matches against Lebanon were all one-goal wins. Naturally, Palestine, Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan are expected to do better.
Pot 4 included India (101st), Tajikistan (109th), Thailand (114th), Malaysia (138th), Hong Kong (147th) and Indonesia (149th). Since this is the last port, they are all teams outside the top 100. In a situation where there is generally no big difference, it is expected that a strange atmosphere will be formed if Malaysia, led by director Kim Pan-gon, and Indonesia, directed by Shin Tae-yong, are tied.
Meanwhile, coach Klinsman left for the group draw event on the 7th. In addition, Park Ji-seong, director of Jeonbuk Hyundai, the ‘eternal captain’, will be selected by lottery.