Underestimated No More: How Asian Football Shocked the World

The Asian Countries journey in the World Football Championship has been positively increased nowadays. Several Asian nations proved themselves by defeating other great football countries. Asia might be perceived as a less-talented continent since the West is the continent where football was born. The previous World Cup which held in Qatar, changed the perspective of many football fans. Many unexpected events that the Asian team did. Saudi Arabia with their 2-1 result against Argentina—which they're the champion in that edition. Japan unexpectedly beat Germany and Spain, which puts them on the top of the table. Several nations have shown their existence in global tournaments, making Asia a continent that should not be underestimated. 


  • Japan

Football fans already know how monster The Samurai Blue is in Asia. Japan is the country that has developed its football a lot, proved by how they produced a lot of talented players. Their local league became the best league in Asia, which supports their talented players' demand. On the other hand, there are a lot of Japanese players who played abroad in the Top European League. It enriched the Japan national football team, making them currently the best team in Asia. Numerous Japanese players were playing in the top five European Leagues, for example: Kaoru Mitoma, Wataru Endo, Takefusa Kubo, Takumi Minamino, Yukinari Sugawara, and many more.


  • Iran

Even though not as many as the Japanese players, Iran has several players that played impressively in the European League. Some names for example, Mehdi Taremi and Sardar Azmoun, performed well in Serie A. Iran is also one of the football powers of Asia, where they are not only powerful in football, but also in futsal.


  • South Korea 

East Asian countries after Japan which is also one of the biggest Asian football powers. The national team that is captained by Son Heung Min—also the captain of Tottenham Hotspur—has become a team that is highly avoided by other Asian countries. Several players who played in the European Leagues, for example Lee Kang In and Kim Min Jae, enrich the Taegeuk Warrior squad. Even though the team had a bad performance in the last edition of the Asian Cup, They immediately improved and showed their power again in the current stage three of World Cup Qualifier.


  • Saudi Arabia 

One of the countries that is gradually getting better and starting to move towards the top of Asian football. They successfully defeated Argentina with a superb finish from Al Hilal winger Salem Aldawsari. The enormous changes has been done in the Saudi League, with the arrival of one of the greatest players, Cristiano Ronaldo, at Al-Nassr attracting the other great players to come to the Saudi Arabia league. Teams in the Arab League are competing to bring in quality players, thereby improving the quality of their league. The national team has just fired their coach, Roberto Mancini, where he once brought Manchester City to win the Premier League. It is interesting to see how the returns of Hervé Renard—who previously became the coach before Mancini—might change Saudi Arabia back to how it was during the last World Cup. 

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