Football tournament
The AFC Asian Cup is an international association football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is the second oldest continental football championship in the world after Copa América . The winning team becomes the champion of Asia and automatically qualifies for the FIFA Confederations Cup .
The Asian Cup was held once every four years from the 1956 in Hong Kong until the 2004 in Mainland China . However, since the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship were also scheduled in the same year as the Asian Cup, the AFC decided to move their championship to a less crowded cycle. After 2004, the tournament was next held in 2007 co-hosted by four nations: (Indonesia , Malaysia , Thailand , Vietnam ), and thereafter will be held every four years.
The Asian Cup has generally been dominated a small number of top teams. Initially successful teams were South Korea and Iran . Recently Japan and Saudi Arabia have been the most successful teams and often played in the final matches. Other teams which have achieved success at times include Iraq , Israel and Kuwait .
Australia is the most recent nation to join the Asian confederation in 2007.[1]
The 2019 tournament will be expanded from 16 teams to 24 teams.[2] [3]
Results
Summaries
Note: (RR) = played as round-robin format
Teams reaching the final
Team
Titles
Runners-up
Finalists
Japan 4 (1992 * 2000 , 2004 , 2011 )
–
4
Saudi Arabia 3 (1984 , 1988 , 1996 )
3 (1992 , 2000 , 2007 )
6
Iran 3 (1968 * 1972 , 1976 *
–
3
South Korea 2 (1956 , 1960 *
3 (1972 , 1980 , 1988 )
5
Israel 1
1 (1964 *
2 (1956 , 1960 )
3
Kuwait 1 (1980 *
1 (1976 )
2
Iraq 1 (2007 )
–
1
China –
2 (1984 , 2004 *
2
United Arab Emirates –
1 (1996 *
1
India –
1 (1964 )
1
Myanmar –
1 (1968 )
1
Australia –
1 (2011 )
1
* hosts
1 Israel was expelled from the AFC in the early 1970s[4] UEFA .
Results of host nations
Results of defending champions
Best performances by region
Federation (Region)
Best performance
WAFF (West Asia)
9 titles, won by Saudi Arabia (3), Iran (3), Kuwait (1), Iraq (1), Israel (1)
EAFF (East Asia)
6 titles, won by Japan (4), Korea Republic (2)
AFF (Southeast Asia)
Runner-up (Myanmar , 1968), Runner-up (Australia , 2011)
SAFF (Central and South Asia)
Runner-up (India , 1964)
Records and statistics
Overall top goalscorers
Goals
Scorers
14
Ali Daei
10
Lee Dong-Gook
9
Naohiro Takahara
8
Jassem Al-Houwaidi
7
Behtash Fariba , Hossein Kalani , Choi Soon-Ho , Faisal Al-Dakhil
6
Younis Mahmoud , Yasser Al-Qahtani , Alexander Geynrikh
5
A'ala Hubail , Ismael Abdullatif , Ali Karimi , Ali Jabbari , Akinori Nishizawa , Woo Sang-Kwon , Hwang Sun-Hong , Koo Ja-Cheol , Nahum Stelmach , Shao Jiayi
Hat-tricks
A hat-trick is achieved when the same player scores three or more goals in one match. Listed in chronological order.
Sequence
Player
No. of
Time of goals
Representing
Final
Opponent
Tournament
Round
1 .Hossein Kalani 3
34', 70', 78'
Iran 3–0
Iraq 1972 Group stage
2 .Ali Jabbari 3
80', 86', 88'
Iran 3–2
Thailand 1972 Group stage
3 .Gholam Hossein Mazloumi 3
63', 74', 80'
Iran 8–0
South Yemen 1976 Group stage
4 .Behtash Fariba 4
11', 34', 80', 82'
Iran 7–0
Bangladesh 1980 Group stage
5 .Choi Soon-Ho 3
26', 53', 78'(P )
South Korea 4–1
United Arab Emirates 1980 Group stage
6 .Shen Xiangfu 3
China 6–0
Bangladesh 1980 Group stage
7 .Xu Yonglai 3
China 6–0
Bangladesh 1980 Group stage
8 .Ali Daei 4
66', 76', 83', 89'(P )
Iran 6–2
South Korea 1996 Quarter-finals
9 .Akinori Nishizawa 3
14', 25', 49'
Japan 8–1
Uzbekistan 2000 Group stage
10 .Naohiro Takahara 3
18', 20', 57'
Japan 8–1
Uzbekistan 2000 Group stage
11 .Lee Dong-Gook 3
30', 76', 90+1'
South Korea 3–0
Indonesia 2000 Group stage
12 .Mohammad Al-Shalhoub 3
35', 78', 86'
Saudi Arabia 5–0
Uzbekistan 2000 Group stage
13 .Ali Karimi 3
10', 20', 77'
Iran 4–3
South Korea 2004 Quarter-finals
14 .Ismaeel Abdullatif 4
16', 19', 35', 77'
Bahrain 5–2
India 2011 Group stage
15 .Shinji Okazaki 3
8', 13', 80'
Japan 5–0
Saudi Arabia 2011 Group stage
Most tournaments appeared
The tabulated below is the players who had appeared more than three times in the history of tournament
AFC Asian Cup winning managers
Score
Attendance
Year
Host nation
Mpd
Total Att.
Avg Att.
1992
Japan 16
316,496
19,781
1996
United Arab Emirates 26
398,008
15,308
2000
Lebanon 26
230,490
8,865
2004
China 32
1,020,050
31,877
2007
Vietnam Indonesia Thailand Malaysia 32
724,222
22,632
2011
Qatar 32
405,361
12,668
Debut of teams
General Statistics
Team
Part
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
Dif
Pts
Avg GF
Avg GA
Avg Pts
Iran 12
58
34
17
7
112
42
+70
119
9.33
3.41
9.92
South Korea 12
56
27
16
13
92
60
+32
97
7.66
5.00
8.08
Japan 7
37
21
11
5
72
37
+35
74
10.28
5.28
10.57
Saudi Arabia 8
41
18
13
10
58
40
+18
67
7.25
5.00
8.37
China 10
47
17
13
17
76
54
+22
64
7.60
5.40
6.40
Kuwait 9
39
15
10
14
46
45
+1
55
5.11
5.00
6.11
Iraq 7
29
11
6
12
30
33
-3
39
4.28
4.71
5.57
United Arab Emirates 8
32
9
8
15
23
43
-20
35
2.87
5.37
4.37
Uzbekistan 5
20
9
3
8
30
39
-9
30
6.00
7.80
6.00
Qatar 8
29
6
11
12
31
39
-8
29
3.87
4.87
3.62
Israel 4
13
9
0
4
28
15
+13
27
7.00
3.75
6.75
Syria 5
18
7
2
9
15
23
-8
23
3.00
4.60
4.60
Australia 2
10
5
3
2
20
7
+13
18
10.00
3.50
9.00
Bahrain 4
16
3
5
8
23
29
-6
14
5.75
7.25
3.50
Jordan 2
8
3
4
1
8
5
+3
13
3.00
3.00
6.50
North Korea 3
12
3
2
7
12
19
-7
11
4.00
6.33
3.66
Thailand 6
20
1
8
11
15
45
-30
11
2.50
7.50
1.83
Indonesia 4
12
2
2
8
10
28
-18
8
2.50
7.00
2.00
Myanmar 1
4
2
1
1
5
4
+1
7
5.00
4.00
7.00
India 3
10
2
1
7
8
23
-15
7
2.66
7.66
2.33
Oman 2
6
1
3
2
5
6
-1
6
2.50
3.00
3.00
Malaysia 3
9
1
3
5
7
20
-13
6
2.33
6.67
2.00
Chinese Taipei 2
7
1
2
4
5
12
-7
5
2.50
6.00
2.50
Singapore 1
4
1
1
2
3
4
-1
4
3.00
4.00
4.00
Vietnam 1
4
1
1
2
4
7
-3
4
4.00
7.00
4.00
Cambodia 1
5
1
1
3
8
10
-2
4
8.00
10.00
4.00
Hong Kong 3
10
0
3
7
9
23
-14
3
3.00
7.67
1.00
Lebanon 1
3
0
2
1
3
7
-4
2
3.00
7.00
2.00
Turkmenistan 1
3
0
1
2
4
6
-2
1
4.00
6.00
1.00
South Vietnam 2
6
0
1
5
8
21
-13
1
4.00
10.50
0.50
South Yemen 1
2
0
0
2
0
9
-9
0
0.00
9.00
0.00
Bangladesh 1
4
0
0
4
2
17
-15
0
2.00
17.00
0.00
Iran holds most Asian Cup statistical records : most games played (58 followed by South Korea,56), most games won (34, followed by South Korea, 27), most goals scored (112, followed by South Korea, 92), best goal difference (+70, followed by Japan, +35). Japan holds records of most Asian Cup titles (4),Iran shares records most Asian Cup final competition participation (12) with South Korea.South Korea holds records of most semi final appearance (9),while Saudi Arabia holds record of finals played (6 followed by South Korea 5, Japan 4 and Iran 3). Unlike other confederation tournaments, the Asian Cup has often been rescheduled to another time of year to better suit the climate of the host nation.
Template:AFC Asian Cup squads
Japan
2015 AFC Asian Cup
