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2011 AFC Asian Cup

2011 كأس آسيا
Tournament details
Host country	Qatar
Dates	7–29 January
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	5 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (4th title)
Runners-up	Australia
Third place	South Korea
Fourth place	Uzbekistan
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	90 (2.81 per match)
Attendance	405,361 (12,668 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Koo Ja-cheol (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Keisuke Honda
Fair play award	South Korea
← 2007 2015 →

The 2011 AFC Asian Cup was the 15th 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 Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011. It was the second time that the tournament was hosted by Qatar, the previous occasion being the 1988 AFC Asian Cup. Japan won the cup after a 1–0 win against Australia, and earned the right to compete in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil as the representative from AFC.

A television viewing audience of 484 million in 80 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, North America and North Africa witnessed Japan defeat Australia 1–0 in the final.

Host selection

Qatar, India and Iran all lodged interest in hosting the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, while Australia also considered making a late bid. Qatar officially submitted their bid on 19 June 2006, while India withdrew their interest and Iran failed to submit proper documentation for their bid on time.

Qatar was announced as host nation on 29 July 2007, during the 2007 AFC Asian Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia. Due to FIFA regulations stating that confederation events can be hosted either in January or July, and July being peak summer heat in the Middle East, 2011 Asian Cup took place in January of that year.

Qualification

The teams finishing first, second and third in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, and the host nation for the 2011 competition, received automatic byes to the finals. They were joined by the top two finishers in each of five qualifying groups. The AFC Challenge Cup acted as a further qualification competition for eligible countries within the emerging and developing category of member associations. The winners of the AFC Challenge Cup competitions in 2008 and 2010 qualified automatically to the 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals. These two winners were India and North Korea. It was India's first play for the Asian Cup since 1984, and North Korea's first since 1992.

The final day of qualification was 3 March 2010.

List of qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament
Qatar	Hosts	29 July 2007	7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Iraq	2007 AFC Asian Cup winner	25 July 2007	6 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Saudi Arabia	2007 AFC Asian Cup runner-up	25 July 2007	7 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
South Korea	2007 AFC Asian Cup third place	28 July 2007	11 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
India	2008 AFC Challenge Cup winner	13 August 2008	2 (1964, 1984)
Uzbekistan	Group C runner-up	18 November 2009	4 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Syria	Group D winner	18 November 2009	4 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
Iran	Group E winner	6 January 2010	11 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
China	Group D runner-up	6 January 2010	9 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Japan	Group A winner	6 January 2010	6 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Bahrain	Group A runner-up	6 January 2010	3 (1988, 2004, 2007)
United Arab Emirates	Group C winner	6 January 2010	7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2007)
North Korea	2010 AFC Challenge Cup winner	27 February 2010	2 (1980, 1992)
Australia	Group B winner	3 March 2010	1 (2007)
Kuwait	Group B runner-up	3 March 2010	8 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Jordan	Group E runner-up	3 March 2010	1 (2004)

Notes:

Bold indicates champion for that year

Italic indicates host

Draw

The draw for the AFC Asian Cup 2011 was held on 23 April 2010 in Doha, Qatar. Qatar were seeded among the top group.

Seeding

Seeding was announced on 22 April 2010. Qatar were automatically placed in Group A. FIFA rankings of April 2010 are given in brackets.

Pot 1 (Host and Seeds)	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Qatar (96)  Iraq (81)  Saudi Arabia (66)  South Korea (47)	Japan (43)  Australia (20)  Iran (60)  Uzbekistan (93)	China (84)  United Arab Emirates (100)  Bahrain (69)  Jordan (103)	Syria (98)  Kuwait (97)  India (133)  North Korea (106)

Venues

Members of the AFC Organising Committee for AFC Asian Cup 2011 have agreed the use of five stadiums for the 2011 tournament.

Since the tournament, Ahmed bin Ali Stadium was demolished. Khalifa International Stadium have been heavily modified. The Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Thani bin Jassim Stadium and Suheim bin Hamad Stadium are the only largely unmodified stadium used for this tournament.

Officials

12 referees and 24 assistants were selected for the tournament, along with three stand-by referees:

Referee	Assistants
Ben Williams	Ben Wilson	Hakan Anaz
Yuichi Nishimura	Toru Sagara	Toshiyuki Nagi
Kim Dong-jin	Jeong Hae-sang	Jang Jun-mo
Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh	Mu Yuxin	Mohd Sabri bin Mat Daud
Abdullah Al Hilali	Bakhadyr Kochkarov	Hamed Al Mayahi
Abdulrahman Abdou	Mohammad Darman	Hassan Al Thawadi
Mohsen Torky	Hassan Kamranifar	Reza Sokhandan
Abdul Malik Abdul Bashir	Jeffrey Goh Gek Pheng	Haja Maidin
Nawaf Shukralla	Khaled Al Alan	Mohammed Jawdat Nehlawi
Ali Al Badwawi	Saleh Al Marzouqi	Yaser Marad
Ravshan Irmatov	Abdukhamidullo Rasulov	Rafael Ilyasov

Standby referees

Alireza Faghani

Valentin Kovalenko

Abdullah Balideh

Squads

Each country's final squad of 23 players was submitted by 28 December 2010.

Group stage

All times are Arabian Standard Time (AST) – UTC+3

Tie-breaking criteria

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. Goal difference in all the group matches;
5. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
6. Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
7. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches; (1 point for each yellow card, 3 points for each red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for each direct red card, 4 points for each yellow card followed by a direct red card)
8. Drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uzbekistan	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Qatar (H)	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6
3	China	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
4	Kuwait	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

Qatar	0–2	Uzbekistan
	Report	Ahmedov 59' Djeparov 77'

Kuwait	0–2	China
	Report	Zhang Linpeng 58' Deng Zhuoxiang 67'

Uzbekistan	2–1	Kuwait
Shatskikh 41' Djeparov 65'	Report	Al-Mutwa 49' (pen.)

China	0–2	Qatar
	Report	Ahmed 27', 45+1'

Qatar	3–0	Kuwait
B. Mohammed 12' El-Sayed 16' Fábio César 86'	Report

China	2–2	Uzbekistan
Yu Hai 6' Hao Junmin 56'	Report	Ahmedov 30' Geynrikh 46'

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	2	1	0	8	2	+6	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Jordan	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7
3	Syria	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3
4	Saudi Arabia	3	0	0	3	1	8	−7	0

Japan	1–1	Jordan
Yoshida 90+2'	Report	Abdel Fattah 45'

Saudi Arabia	1–2	Syria
Al-Jassim 60'	Report	A. Al Hussain 38', 63'

Jordan	1–0	Saudi Arabia
Abdul-Rahman 42'	Report

Syria	1–2	Japan
Al Khatib 76' (pen.)	Report	Hasebe 35' Honda 82' (pen.)

Saudi Arabia	0–5	Japan
	Report	Okazaki 8', 13', 80' Maeda 19', 51'

Jordan	2–1	Syria
Diab 30' (o.g.) Al-Saify 59'	Report	Al Zeno 15'

Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	South Korea	3	2	1	0	7	3	+4	7
3	Bahrain	3	1	0	2	6	5	+1	3
4	India	3	0	0	3	3	13	−10	0

India	0–4	Australia
	Report	Cahill 11', 65' Kewell 25' Holman 45+2'

South Korea	2–1	Bahrain
Koo Ja-cheol 41', 56'	Report	Aaish 85' (pen.)

Australia	1–1	South Korea
Jedinak 62'	Report	Koo Ja-cheol 24'

Bahrain	5–2	India
Aaish 8' (pen.) Abdullatif 16', 19', 35', 77'	Report	Gouramangi 9' Chhetri 52'

South Korea	4–1	India
Ji Dong-won 6', 23' Koo Ja-cheol 9' Son Heung-min 81'	Report	Chhetri 12' (pen.)

Australia	1–0	Bahrain
Jedinak 37'	Report

Group D

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Iraq	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6
3	North Korea	3	0	1	2	0	2	−2	1
4	United Arab Emirates	3	0	1	2	0	4	−4	1

North Korea	0–0	United Arab Emirates
	Report

Iraq	1–2	Iran
Mahmoud 13'	Report	Rezaei 42' Mobali 84'

Iran	1–0	North Korea
Ansarifard 63'	Report

United Arab Emirates	0–1	Iraq
	Report	W. Abbas 90+3' (o.g.)

Iraq	1–0	North Korea
Jassim 22'	Report

United Arab Emirates	0–3	Iran
	Report	Afshin 67' M. Nouri 83' W. Abbas 90+3' (o.g.)

Knockout stage

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	21 January – Al Rayyan (KIS)
	Uzbekistan	2
					25 January – Al Rayyan (KIS)
	Jordan	1
					Uzbekistan	0
	22 January – Al Rayyan (JBHS)
					Australia	6
	Australia (a.e.t.)	1
									29 January – Al Rayyan (KIS)
	Iraq	0
									Australia	0
	21 January – Al Rayyan (TBJS)
									Japan (a.e.t.)	1
	Japan	3
					25 January – Al Rayyan (TBJS)
	Qatar	2
					Japan (pen.)	2 (3)
	22 January – Doha
					South Korea	2 (0)			Third place
	Iran	0
									28 January – Al Rayyan (JBHS)
	South Korea (a.e.t.)	1
									Uzbekistan	2
									South Korea	3

All times are Arabian Standard Time (AST) – UTC+3

Quarter-finals

Japan	3–2	Qatar
Kagawa 29', 71' Inoha 89'	Report	Soria 13' Fábio César 63'

Uzbekistan	2–1	Jordan
Bakayev 47', 49'	Report	B. Bani Yaseen 58'

Australia	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Iraq
Kewell 118'	Report

Iran	0–1 (a.e.t.)	South Korea
	Report	Yoon Bit-garam 105'

Semi-finals

Japan	2–2 (a.e.t.)	South Korea
Maeda 36' Hosogai 97'	Report	Ki Sung-yueng 23' (pen.) Hwang Jae-won 120'
Penalties
K. Honda Okazaki Nagatomo Konno	3–0	Koo Ja-cheol Lee Yong-rae Hong Jeong-ho

Uzbekistan	0–6	Australia
	Report	Kewell 5' Ognenovski 35' Carney 65' Emerton 73' Valeri 82' Kruse 83'

Third place playoff

Uzbekistan	2–3	South Korea
Geynrikh 45' (pen.), 53'	Report	Koo Ja-cheol 18' Ji Dong-won 28', 39'

Final

Australia	0–1 (a.e.t.)	Japan
	Report	T. Lee 109'

Statistics

Goalscorers

With five goals, Koo Ja-cheol was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 90 goals were scored by 60 different players, with three of them credited as own goals.

5 goals:

• Koo Ja-cheol

4 goals:

• Ismail Abdul-Latif
• Ji Dong-won

3 goals:

• Harry Kewell
• Ryoichi Maeda
• Shinji Okazaki
• Alexander Geynrikh

2 goals:

• Tim Cahill
• Mile Jedinak
• Faouzi Mubarak Aaish
• Sunil Chhetri
• Shinji Kagawa
• Yusef Ahmed
• Fábio César Montezine
• Abdelrazaq Al Hussain
• Odil Ahmedov
• Ulugbek Bakayev
• Server Djeparov

1 goal:

• David Carney
• Brett Emerton
• Brett Holman
• Robbie Kruse
• Saša Ognenovski
• Carl Valeri
• Deng Zhuoxiang
• Hao Junmin
• Yu Hai
• Zhang Linpeng
• Gouramangi Singh
• Arash Afshin
• Karim Ansarifard
• Iman Mobali
• Mohammad Nouri
• Gholamreza Rezaei
• Karrar Jassim
• Younis Mahmoud
• Makoto Hasebe
• Keisuke Honda
• Hajime Hosogai
• Masahiko Inoha
• Tadanari Lee
• Maya Yoshida
• Hassan Abdel Fattah
• Baha'a Abdul-Rahman
• Odai Al-Saify
• Bashar Bani Yaseen
• Bader Al-Mutawa
• Mohamed El Sayed
• Bilal Mohammed
• Sebastián Soria
• Taisir Al-Jassim
• Hwang Jae-won
• Ki Sung-yueng
• Son Heung-min
• Yoon Bit-garam
• Firas Al-Khatib
• Mohamed Al Zeno
• Maksim Shatskikh

1 own goal:

• Ali Diab (for Jordan)

2 own goals:

• Walid Abbas (for Iraq and Iran)

Awards

The AFC selected the MVP, top goalscorer, fair play award and four quality players of the tournament. They didn't officially announce the all-star team of this tournament.

Most Valuable Player

• Keisuke Honda

Top Goalscorer

• Koo Ja-cheol

Fair Play Award

•  South Korea

Quality Players

• Keisuke Honda
• Park Ji-sung
• Harry Kewell
• Server Djeparov

Final standings

Pos.	Team	G	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	GF	GA	GD
1	Japan	B	6	4	2	0	14	14	6	+8
2	Australia	C	6	4	1	1	13	13	2	+11
3	South Korea	C	6	4	2	0	14	13	7	+6
4	Uzbekistan	A	6	3	1	2	10	10	13	−3
Eliminated in the quarter-finals
5	Iran	D	4	3	0	1	9	6	2	+4
6	Qatar	A	4	2	0	2	6	7	5	+2
7	Jordan	B	4	2	1	1	7	5	4	+1
8	Iraq	D	4	2	0	2	6	3	3	0
Eliminated in group stage
9	China	A	3	1	1	1	4	4	4	0
10	Bahrain	C	3	1	0	2	3	6	5	+1
11	Syria	B	3	1	0	2	3	4	5	−1
12	North Korea	D	3	0	1	2	1	0	2	−2
13	United Arab Emirates	D	3	0	1	2	1	0	4	−4
14	Kuwait	A	3	0	0	3	0	1	7	−6
15	Saudi Arabia	B	3	0	0	3	0	1	8	−7
16	India	C	3	0	0	3	0	3	13	−10

Source: AFC Technical Report

Marketing

Official match ball

The Nike Total 90 Tracer was the official match ball of the tournament.

Official mascot

Official mascot were Saboog, Tmbki, Freha, Zkriti and Tranaa. They are a family of Jerboas, a rodent found in the deserts of Qatar. The characters are named after different locations in the north, south, east and west of Qatar.

Official song

For marketing of the event, the organisers opted for the slogan "Yalla Asia" with a song sung by international artists Jay Sean and Karl Wolf, featuring Radhika Vekaria. Yalla Asia was composed and written by Radhika Vekaria, Max Herman and Zoulikha El Fassi. Max Herman produced the record for Zoul Projects 2011. The music video features Football Free Stylers Abbas Farid and Soufiane Touzani.

The music video was released on January 9, 2011.

Sponsorship

Official Sponsors

• Emirates
• Epson
• ING
• Konica Minolta
• Pocari Sweat
• Qatar Petroleum
• Qtel
• Samsung
• Toshiba
• The Asahi Shimbun

Official Supporters

• Alkass Sports Channels
• FamilyMart
• Hyundai Heavy Industries
• Makita
• Nike
• Nikon

Controversies

The 2011 Asian Cup was not without controversies as concerns were risen about the extremely low crowds at most games not featuring hosts Qatar. The average attendance was just 12,006, much lower than the previous AFC Asian Cup tournaments. North Korea and the United Arab Emirates both had the lowest attendance numbers with approximately 3,000 and 6,000 attendances respectively. The final match between Japan and Australia saw as many as 3,000 to 10,000 fans with valid tickets denied entry to the stadium which then allegedly sparked small skirmishes among fans, "It was just incredibly badly handled. There were kids and families, not causing any problem, being confronted by riot police and being told they weren't getting in", according to Andy Richardson, Al Jazeera's sports correspondent. The AFC stated that the gates were closed early for security concerns and organisers did not anticipate an influx of Japanese and Australian fans. The organising committee has offered to refund all tickets not redeemed at the match.

After staging the 2006 Asian Games, this Asian Cup was being closely watched as an indicator to see how Qatar copes with hosting a major international football tournament in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Notes

1. Clarification on goalscorers: the second Indian goal is credited to Sunil Chhetri, who headed in a rebound after a shot from Renedy Singh hit the underside of the bar and bounced behind the goal line. However, as the officials did not indicate a goal was scored at that earlier point but only after Chhetri headed into the net, Renedy cannot be credited with the goal.

References

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External links

• AFC Asian Cup 2011 Official Site (Archived)
• 2011 AFC Asian Cup at soccerway.com

• 2011 AFC Asian Cup
• AFC Asian Cup tournaments
• International association football competitions hosted by Qatar
• 2011 in Asian football
• 2010–11 in Qatari football
• January 2011 sports events in Asia