2007 AFC Asian Cup

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox international football competition

The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the 14th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held from 7 to 29 July 2007. For the first time in its history, the competition was co-hosted by four countries in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam; it was the first time in football history that more than two countries joined as hosts of a major continental competition and the only one to have ever taken place until UEFA Euro 2020.

Iraq won the continental title for the first time after defeating three-time champion Saudi Arabia 1–0 in the final. As the winner, Iraq represented the AFC in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Before 2007, Asia held its continental tournament every four years from 1956 until 2004. With the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship also held in the same year as the Asian Cup, the AFC changed their tradition. From 2007, AFC decided to hold its continental tournament a year earlier, and every four years henceforth from that date.

An estimated worldwide television audience of 650 million people tuned in to watch the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.^[1]

Australia participated for the first time since moving to the AFC from the OFC. Australia also happened to be the tournament's first nation aside from the co-hosts to qualify for the 2007 Asian Cup.

Venues

Template:OSM Location map

Since the tournament, the Shah Alam Stadium have been demolished. The Rajamangala Stadium, the Mỹ Đình National Stadium, the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, the Bukit Jalil National Stadium and the Gelora Sriwijaya Stadium have all been moderately or heavily modified. The Supachalasai Stadium and the Army Stadium is the only largely unmodified stadium used for this tournament.

City	Stadium	Capacity
Template:Flagicon Bangkok	Rajamangala Stadium	49,722
Template:Flagicon Bangkok	Supachalasai Stadium	19,793
Template:Flagicon Hanoi	Mỹ Đình National Stadium	40,192
Template:Flagicon Ho Chi Minh City	Army Stadium	25,000
Template:Flagicon Jakarta	Gelora Bung Karno Stadium	88,083
Template:Flagicon Kuala Lumpur	Bukit Jalil National Stadium	87,411
Template:Flagicon Palembang	Gelora Sriwijaya Stadium	30,000
Template:Flagicon Shah Alam	Shah Alam Stadium	80,372

Qualification

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The qualification ran from 22 February 2006 to 15 November 2006. For the first time, the defending champions (in this tournament, Japan) did not get automatic qualification. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam automatically qualified as co-hosts. Twenty-four teams were split into six groups of four to compete for the 12 remaining spots in the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament^{1, 2}
Template:Fb	00Co-hosts	7 August 2004	Template:Sort (1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb			Template:Sort (1976, 1980)
Template:Fb			Template:Sort (1972, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb³			Template:Sort (1956⁴, 1960⁴)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	16 August 2006	0 (debut)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	6 September 2006	Template:Sort (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort		Template:Sort (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort		Template:Sort (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	11 October 2006	Template:Sort (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort		Template:Sort (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort		Template:Sort (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort		Template:Sort (2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort		Template:Sort (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort		Template:Sort (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	15 November 2006	Template:Sort (1988, 2004)
Template:Fb	Template:Sort	15 November 2006	Template:Sort (1996, 2000, 2004)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² Italic indicates host

³ Vietnam's debut since the reunification of Vietnam in 1976

⁴ As South Vietnam

Seeds

For the first time, the seeds are based on the October 2006 FIFA World Rankings instead of the basis of the performance from the previous AFC Asian Cup competition. This was to ensure that the same number of strong teams do not meet in the early stage.^[2]

The four seeded teams were announced on 19 December 2006. The seeds comprised Pot 4 in the draw. Pot 1 consists of the teams from all co-hosts.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Template:Fb (153) Template:Fb (152) Template:Fb (137) Template:Fb (172)	Template:Fb (84) Template:Fb (83) Template:Fb (87) Template:Fb (97)	Template:Fb (58) Template:Fb (45) Template:Fb (64) Template:Fb (72)	Template:Fb (39) Template:Fb (38) Template:Fb (47) Template:Fb (51)

The draw was held on 19 December 2006 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Officials

16 referees and 24 assistant referees were officially cleared following a fitness test on 2 July in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One referee and two assistant referees were also named from the CAF.^[3]

Referees

Assistant Referees

Template:Flagicon Mohd. Shahidul Islam
Template:Flagicon Liu Tiejun
Template:Flagicon Evarist Menkouande
Template:Flagicon Poon Ming Fai
Template:Flagicon Benjamin Silva
Template:Flagicon Reza Sokhandan
Template:Flagicon Mohammad Kadom Arab
Template:Flagicon Awni Hassouneh
Template:Flagicon Toru Sagara
Template:Flagicon Jeong Hae-sang
Template:Flagicon Mohammed Al-Ghamdi
Template:Flagicon Yaser Ahmad Marad
Template:Flagicon Mustafa Taleb
Template:Flagicon Mohd. Sabri bin Mat Daud
Template:Flagicon Win U Kyaw
Template:Flagicon Mohamed Saeed
Template:Flagicon Abdullah Al-Amouri
Template:Flagicon Ibrahim Ali Mohammed
Template:Flagicon Célestin Ntagungira
Template:Flagicon Yew Mun Tang
Template:Flagicon Hamdi Al-Kadri
Template:Flagicon Begench Allaberdiyev
Template:Flagicon Saleh Al-Marzouqi
Template:Flagicon Viktor Serazitdinov

(†): Replaced Template:Flagicon Shamsul Maidin after he pulled out with injury.^[4]

Squads

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Tournament summary

File:2007 AFC Asian Cup countries.PNG

Participating countries.

File:2007 AFC Cup participants.png

Results of the participating teams

The Asian Cup saw many upsets in the early stages of the tournament, with tournament favourites Australia and South Korea performing poorly in the group stage.

In Group A, Oman held the Socceroos to a surprising draw. The Omanis took the lead and would have won, if not for an injury time goal from Tim Cahill. Next, joint hosts and the lowest-ranked team in the competition, Vietnam, shocked the UAE with a 2–0 victory. In the same group, Qatar held Japan to a shock 1–1 draw. The result caused Japan's coach Ivica Osim to fly into a rage in which he branded his players as 'amateurs' and reduced his interpreter to tears.^[5] In Group D, Indonesia continued the undefeated streak of the hosts by defeating Bahrain 2–1. Malaysia ended up as the only host country to lose their opening match after a crushing 5–1 defeat to China. Thailand recorded just their 2nd win in the Asian Cup finals (their other was in 1972 against Cambodia), and its first ever win in regulation, when they beat Oman 2–0 on 12 July. Meanwhile, Australia was upset by a 3–1 defeat to Iraq the following day, leaving them floundering in third place in their group despite high expectations. However, Australia's 4–0 demolition of Thailand at the last match day saw them move on to the quarter-finals, as Oman was unable to overcome Iraq in a goalless draw.

Vietnam continued to stun all predictions when they drew 1–1 with 2006 ASIAD champions Qatar, while Japan finally got their first win when they thrashed the UAE 3–1. Although Vietnam lost 1–4 to Japan, the UAE's 2–1 comeback win over Qatar resulted in Vietnam's first ever qualification into the next round. They became the only host to progress through despite being in a group with three different champions. On the other hand, Malaysia continued its poor form with 0–5 and 0–2 losses to Uzbekistan and Iran, exiting the tournament without a single point. China's shocking elimination occurred when they were hammered 0–3 by the Uzbeks, despite having drawn 2–2 with Iran and was expected to qualify from group stage with an easy win.

Bahrain shocked the whole tournament by defeating South Korea 2–1 in Group D, leaving the Koreans on the verge of elimination when Indonesia was beaten 1–2 by Saudi Arabia. However, South Korea secured a 1–0 win over hosts Indonesia and with Saudi Arabia destroying Bahrain 4–0, it was enough for the Koreans to qualify to the quarter-finals.

In the quarter-finals, Iraq defeated Vietnam 2–0, while South Korea needed a penalty shootout to eliminate Iran 4–2. Japan also needed a penalty shootout to defeat Australia 4–3 (this was the first time Australia's goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer had ever come out on the losing end of a penalty shoot-out), and Saudi Arabia won over Uzbekistan 2–1. Iraq upset the Koreans in the semi-finals by winning 4–3 on penalties, resulting in thousands of Iraqis celebrating in the streets of Baghdad. Over 50 Iraqis were killed by terrorist bombs targeting these crowds.^[6] In the other semi-finals, Saudi Arabia eliminated defending champions Japan after a 3–2 win to make the final match an all-Arab affair.

Iraq went on to defeat the Saudis 1–0, taking the Asian Cup title. Iraqi forward and captain Younis Mahmoud was given the title of Most Valuable Player. South Korea took third place, narrowly beating Japan 6–5 on penalties. It was the third consecutive match in the tournament that South Korea drew 0–0 before a penalty shootout. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, as the top three teams in the tournament, all received automatic berths to the 2011 Asian Cup along with the next hosts Qatar.^[7]

Group stage

Group A

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