2000 AFC Asian Cup

The 2000 AFC Asian Cup was the 12th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Lebanon between 12 and 29 October 2000. Japan defeated defending champion Saudi Arabia in the final match in Beirut.

Qualification

42 teams participated in a preliminary tournament. It was divided into 10 groups and the first-placed team of each group thus qualified. A total of 84 games were held, starting with the Oman versus Kyrgyzstan game on 3 August 1999.

The 12 qualifying teams were:

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament1, 2
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	20 December 1996	Template:Sort (Debut)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	21 December 1996	Template:Sort (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	7 August 1999	Template:Sort (1972, 1976, 1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	20 November 1999	Template:Sort (1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	26 November 1999	Template:Sort (1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	29 January 2000	Template:Sort (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	18 February 2000	Template:Sort (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	20 February 2000	Template:Sort (1988, 1992, 1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	8 April 2000	Template:Sort (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	9 April 2000	Template:Sort (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	9 April 2000	Template:Sort (1972, 1992, 1996)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	11 April 2000	Template:Sort (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)

Notes:

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² Italic indicates host

Stadiums

Template:Location map+	Beirut	Sidon	Tripoli
	Sports City Stadium	Saida Municipal Stadium	International Olympic Stadium
	Capacity: 47,799	Capacity: 22,600	Capacity: 22,400
	File:Camille Chamoun Stadium Fans.png	File:Saida International Stadium with beachgoers.jpg	File:Flag of None.svg

Tournament summary

Lebanon participated in the country's first ever football competition in the history as host, but began disappointingly, losing 0–4 to Iran. Lebanon sought to reinvigorate the team against Iraq and Thailand, but all ended up in just draws, and Lebanon finished bottom in the group, the first host nation since Qatar 1988 to not progress from the group stage. Iran and Iraq managed to survive in the group A with seven and four points respectively, and Thailand took the third, but did not progress due to inferior points, having won no match in their group. Group B saw South Korea failed to achieve a top two finish, falling behind group winner China and Kuwait, but qualified as the best third place team, with the team's only win was against Indonesia. Indonesia was the only team to not score a single goal in the tournament, being beaten by South Korea and China, and a goalless draw with Kuwait. Group C witnessed Uzbekistan to become the worst-performed team in the tournament, being heavily beaten 1–8 by Japan and 0–5 by defending champions Saudi Arabia. The Japanese scrambled to top the group with a famous 4–1 win over the Saudis, though Saudi Arabia would go on to progress together after an unpromising group stage performance. Qatar, another participant in the group, finished in third and progressed thanked for one point ahead of Thailand, having drawn in all three matches.

The quarter-finals saw Iran lost 1–2 to South Korea by a golden goal of Lee Dong-gook, and the same happened in Saudi Arabia's victory over Kuwait, also by a golden goal of Nawaf Al-Temyat. China and Japan easily passed through their Arab rivals Qatar and Iraq, with 3–1 and 4–1 wins respectively, to set up an entirely East Asian affair in the semi-finals, with Saudi Arabia being the only non-East Asian team to be here.

The first semi-finals saw Saudi Arabia sealed the victory over the South Koreans, with two goals by Talal Al-Meshal at 76' and 80' meant Lee Dong-gook's late equalizer was too little, too late. Japan beat China in a thriller in Beirut, 3–2, to once again face the Saudis in the final. In the third place match, South Korea won bronze with a 1–0 win over China.

The final in Beirut was filled with majority of Saudi supporters, and was seen as the rematch of the 1992 final and earlier group stage encounter. Hamzah Idris had a chance to take the Saudis ahead of Japan at 10', but he missed the opportunity. Eventually, the missing penalty was what the Saudis regretted the most, because Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, who had accidentally given the Saudis the failed opportunity on the penalty earlier, became the hero of Japan with a goal in 30'. Saudi attempt proved to be fruitless, and Japan won the game by just one goal margin, to conquer its second Asian trophy, repeating Japan's victory over Saudi Arabia eight years ago. Subsequently, Japan, the winner, automatically qualified for the 2004 AFC Asian Cup.

First round

All times are Lebanon summer time (UTC+3).

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Third-placed qualifiers

At the end of the first stage, a comparison was made between the third placed teams of each group. The two best third-placed teams advanced to the quarter-finals.

South Korea and Qatar, the two best third-placed teams, qualified for the quarter-finals.

Knockout stage

All times are Lebanon summer time (UTC+3)

Extra times were played under the golden goal rule.

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Statistics

Goalscorers

With six goals, Lee Dong-Gook is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 77 goals were scored by 43 different players, with two of them credited as own goals.

6 goals

• Template:Flagicon Lee Dong-gook

5 goals Template:Colbegin

• Template:Flagicon Akinori Nishizawa
• Template:Flagicon Naohiro Takahara

Template:Colend 3 goals Template:Colbegin

• Template:Flagicon Qi Hong
• Template:Flagicon Yang Chen
• Template:Flagicon Ali Daei
• Template:Flagicon Hiroshi Nanami
• Template:Flagicon Talal Al-Meshal
• Template:Flagicon Mohammad Al-Shalhoub
• Template:Flagicon Nawaf Al-Temyat

Template:Colend 2 goals Template:Colbegin

• Template:Flagicon Li Ming
• Template:Flagicon Karim Bagheri
• Template:Flagicon Hamid Estili
• Template:Flagicon Sabah Jeayer
• Template:Flagicon Tomokazu Myojin
• Template:Flagicon Jasem Al-Huwaidi
• Template:Flagicon Sakesan Pituratana

Template:Colend 1 goal Template:Colbegin

• Template:Flagicon Fan Zhiyi
• Template:Flagicon Shen Si
• Template:Flagicon Su Maozhen
• Template:Flagicon Qahtan Chathir
• Template:Flagicon Abbas Obeid
• Template:Flagicon Haidar Mahmoud
• Template:Flagicon Hideaki Kitajima
• Template:Flagicon Shigeyoshi Mochizuki
• Template:Flagicon Hiroaki Morishima
• Template:Flagicon Shinji Ono
• Template:Flagicon Atsushi Yanagisawa
• Template:Flagicon Kim Sang-sik
• Template:Flagicon Lee Young-pyo
• Template:Flagicon Noh Jung-yoon
• Template:Flagicon Bashar Abdullah
• Template:Flagicon Abbas Chahrour
• Template:Flagicon Luís Fernandes
• Template:Flagicon Moussa Hojeij
• Template:Flagicon Mohammed Salem Al-Enazi
• Template:Flagicon Abdulnasser Al-Obaidly
• Template:Flagicon Mohammed Gholam
• Template:Flagicon Marzouk Al-Otaibi
• Template:Flagicon Sergey Lushan
• Template:Flagicon Mirjalol Qosimov

Template:Colend Own goal

• Template:Flagicon Fan Zhiyi (for Japan)
• Template:Flagicon Ryuzo Morioka (for Saudi Arabia)

Awards

Most Valuable Player

• Template:Flagicon Hiroshi Nanami

Top scorer

• Template:Flagicon Lee Dong-gook

Best Defender

• Template:Flagicon Ryuzo Morioka

Best Goalkeeper

• Template:Flagicon Jiang Jin

Fair Play Award

• Template:Fb

Team of the Tournament

Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Template:Flagicon Jiang Jin	Template:Flagicon Hong Myung-bo Template:Flagicon Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi Template:Flagicon Jamal Mubarak	Template:Flagicon Hiroshi Nanami Template:Flagicon Nawaf Al-Temyat Template:Flagicon Abbas Obeid Template:Flagicon Karim Bagheri Template:Flagicon Shunsuke Nakamura	Template:Flagicon Lee Dong-gook Template:Flagicon Naohiro Takahara

External links

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