Asian Cup 1/8 finals knockout round has passed halfway. Next, the three favorites Japan, South Korea, and Iran will compete. Among them, South Korea vs. Saudi Arabia has attracted the most attention. Both teams are seeded teams. Now only one team can advance. In the first round, another team will be eliminated early. It will be broadcast live on CCTV 5 channel at 0:00 am on January 31st, Beijing time, which is 12:00 tonight. Based on the examples of deliberately picking opponents in past competitions, it is difficult for a team to reach the end, that is, it is difficult for South Korea to win the Asian Cup championship.
In this Asian Cup, South Korea is regarded as the second favorite to win the championship, second only to Japan. However, the record of 1 win and 2 draws in the group stage cannot meet the status of a team as the favorite to win the championship. In fact, there are other reasons why South Korea deliberately I don't want to win the game.
After South Korea defeated Bahrain in the first round, it overtook Jordan to rank first in the group. Before playing against Jordan in the second round, because Japan in another group suffered an upset loss to Iraq, South Korea was worried about encountering Japan early after advancing to the top 16, so it played against Jordan. There was an abnormal performance in the game. The defense lost the ball continuously, and both sides gave each other an own goal. The final draw was 2-2, which further confirmed that neither team wanted to win.
In the final round, Japan has completely locked in the second place in Group D. In this way, if it advances to the top 16, it will play against the first place in Group E, allowing South Korea and Jordan to practice at the same time.
First of all, in the match between Jordan and Bahrain, the team was completely out of shape and had no desire to equalize the score. South Korea, with a 3-2 lead, unexpectedly conceded the ball at the last moment and was beaten 3-3 by Malaysia, so they sat on the bench. Coach Klinsmann raised the corners of his mouth and sneered. At the same time, the Korean fans in the stands even more excitedly celebrated Malaysia's equalizer and celebrated their national team's failure to win.
After the game, the Korean media immediately posted: "This is not a match-fixing, but Klinsmann's shocking performance of losing the ball."
In the end, South Korea and Jordan avoided Japan as they wished, allowing Bahrain to rise to the top spot and advance to the top 16 to face Japan. South Korea locked in second place and Jordan fell to third place.
After the game, Son Heung-min did not admit that the team played match-fixing, saying bluntly: "Judging from the results, I think this is definitely not the result I wanted. The Malaysian team is really fighting hard to score 1 point. This game once again let I feel a lot of things as a football player."
South Korea picked its opponents in such an obvious way, which was criticized and dissatisfied by fans of other teams. They believed that it would be difficult for such a team to go far in the knockout rounds. Now it is the first challenge advent.
South Korea avoided Japan, but met Saudi Arabia. The latter's strength is not much worse than Japan's. Moreover, it defeated Argentina, which eventually won the World Cup, in the group stage, which also brought a great test to South Korea's pursuit of the championship.
As long as South Korea loses 0-1, it will be eliminated early, and its goal of regaining the Asian Cup championship after 64 years will be shattered early.
