2004 AFC Asian Cup Final

2004 AFC Asian Cup Final

Event	2004 AFC Asian Cup
China PR Japan 1 3
Date	7 August 2004
Venue	Workers' Stadium, Beijing
Man of the Match	Shunsuke Nakamura (Japan)
Referee	Saad Kamil Al-Fadhli (Kuwait)
Attendance	62,000
Weather	Overcast 19°C <31% humidity
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The 2004 AFC Asian Cup Final was a football match that took place on 7 August 2004 at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing, the People's Republic of China, to determine the winner of the 2004 AFC Asian Cup.

Background[]

The 2004 AFC Asian Cup marked the edition as the 13th of the AFC Asian Cup, a football competition organised by the AFC for senior men's national teams of member associations. Qualifying began from 21 March to 3 December 2003, divided into two rounds: preliminary and qualifying, with seven groups in each stage. Top two teams of each seven groups in the final qualifying round would progress to the tournament.

China and Japan automatically qualified for the tournament, with China being the hosts and Japan being the defending champions, having beaten Saudi Arabia in the final.^[1] Also in the previous edition in Lebanon, China and Japan faced each other in the semi-finals, with Japan triumphed 3–2. Coming to this final, China had won against Japan 15 times while Japan had only beaten China 10; yet China had not won the AFC Asian Cup, already finished second in 1984, while Japan claimed the first Asian Cup title at home in 1992 before winning it again in 2000.

Route to the final[]

China[]

China were assigned in the group A as hosts, facing Indonesia, Bahrain and Qatar in process. All of China's three group stage games were held in Beijing. China went to suffer a shock 2–2 draw over minnows Bahrain in the opening fixture, with Husain Ali burying China's hope for a maiden win with a last-minute goal.^[2] China then routed Indonesia 5–0, with Shao Jiayi scoring twice in China's emphatic win, added with Indonesia only playing with ten men due to a red card by Alexander Pulalo after Shao's opening goal.^[3] However, China struggled against a highly defensive Qatar in the final game, only winning 1–0 courtesy of a 77th minute goal from Xu Yunlong to top the group and reaching the quarter-finals.^[4]

China's first opponent in the knockout stage was Iraq, who finished second in Group B. Hao Haidong scored an early lead before Zheng Zhi netted two penalties to give China a triumphant 3–0 win over the Iraqis.^[5] In the semi-finals, China faced Iran, a far stronger side. The Chinese scored first in the 18th minutes thanks to Shao Jiayi, only to be equalised 20 minutes later by Mohammad Alavi. Iran was later reduced to ten men when Sattar Zare was sent off for shoving Shao Jiayi, before another red card was given in the second half on Alavi, who was already substituted early in the second half. Yet China failed to capitalise the opportunity and had to settle on a penalty shootout, which they won 4–3, with Yahya Golmohammadi missing Iran's crucial kick.^[6]

Japan[]

As the defending champions, Japan were drawn in group D with debutants Oman, alongside fellow powerhouses Iran and Thailand. All of Japan's group stage matches were played in Chongqing, which became a hotspot for anti-Japanese hostilities. Japan began their campaign with a hard-fought 1–0 win over Oman, with Shunsuke Nakamura scoring the match's only goal.^[7] Japan then overcame a shock goal to defeat Thailand 4–1, effectively knocking the war elephants out of the tournament.^[8] Japan then confirmed their top place in the group with a goalless draw over Iran.^[9]

In the quarter-finals, Japan faced Jordan, another dark horse of the tournament. To make things difficult, Mahmoud Shelbaieh opened the score for Jordan in the 11th minute, before Takayuki Suzuki equalised just three minutes later. Japan failed to make subsequent chances in the second half and extra time and had to settle for penalties, after Shunsuke Nakamura and Alex missed two of Japan's three first penalties while the Jordanians succeeded in converting both, yet they went on to miss four straight kicks due to controversial decisions, allowing Japan time to restore parity before winning 4–3.^[10] Japan's semi-final match in Jinan was a showdown against Bahrain, another Arab opponent. Despite Yasuhito Endo's red card in the 40th minute, the Samurai Blue came out victorious, winning 4–3 after extra time.^[11]

China PR		Round	Japan
Opponent	Result	Group stage	Opponent	Result
Bahrain	2–2	Match 1	Oman	1–0
Indonesia	5–0	Match 2	Thailand	4–1
Qatar	1–0	Match 3	Iran	0–0
Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  China PR 7 3 2 1 0 8 2 +6  Bahrain 5 3 1 2 0 6 4 +2  Indonesia 3 3 1 0 2 3 9 −6  Qatar 1 3 0 1 2 2 4 −2		Final standing	Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  Japan 7 3 2 1 0 5 1 +4  Iran 5 3 1 2 0 5 2 +3  Oman 4 3 1 1 1 4 3 +1  Thailand 0 3 0 0 3 1 9 −8
Opponent	Result	Knockout stage	Opponent	Result
Iraq	3–0	Quarterfinals	Jordan	1–1 (4–3 pen.)
Iran	1–1 (4–3 pen.)	Semifinals	Bahrain	4–3 (a.e.t.)

Match[]

Details[]

7 August 2004

20:00

China PR	1–3	Japan
Li Ming 31'	Report	Takashi Fukunishi 22' Koji Nakata 65' (Handball) Keiji Tamada 90+1'

Workers Stadium, Beijing

Attendance: 62,000

Referee: Saad Kamil Al-Fadhli (Kuwait)

China PR

Japan

GK 1 Liu Yunfei RB 12 Wei Xin  83' CB 4 Zhang Yaokun CB 5 Zheng Zhi LB 3 Sun Xiang  24' RM 21 Li Ming CM 6 Shao Jiayi CM 15 Zhao Junzhe (C) LM 22 Yan Song  68' CF 9 Hao Haidong  57' CF 29 Li Jinyu  75' Substitutions: FW 11 Li Yi  57' DF 7 Sun Jihai  90+3'  68' FW 13 Xu Yunlong  75' Manager: Arie Haan

GK 23 Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi CB 3 Makoto Tanaka CB 5 Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (C) CB 22 Yuji Nakazawa RWB 21 Akira Kaji LWB 14 Alex CM 15 Takashi Fukunishi CM 6 Koji Nakata  41' AM 10 Shunsuke Nakamura CF 11 Takayuki Suzuki  13' CF 20 Keiji Tamada Manager: Zico

AFC Asian Cup 2004 Winners
Japan Third title

See also[]

• China–Japan football rivalry

References[]

External links[]