The Asian Football Thread

Overseas Football
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Generic thread for all things AFC.

This Saturday sees the first leg of the 2018 ACL Final, Kashima are hosting Persepolis of Iran with the second leg a week later at the Azadi on the 10th.

Kashima won through after an epic semi against Suwon, you’ll remember these were the two sides that qualified from the group stages ahead of Sydney, that they went all the way to be the last two remaining from East Asia proves how tough our group was. Kashima won 3-2 at home, scoring an injury time winner after being 2-0 down really early. They then drew 3-3 in the second leg to secure a 6-5 win on aggregate, after again being 3-1 down around the hour mark. Seems to be the way for Japanese teams, I swear it must be written into J-League by-laws that every match must feature a goal in added time.

Persepolis won through from the West after edging out Al Sadd (eat shit Qatar) 2-1 on aggregate.

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Good to see Persepolis through instead of one of the Saudi or Qatari teams. They love their football in Iran.

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The sooner this seasons comp finishes, the sooner Sydney can get back amongst it. Hopefully we get a few different teams in our group this time. I’d love to see us get out the group and go on a bit of a run. The only thing that Arnie’s SFC missed out on

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Remember when Liam Reddy signed for Persepolis?

Agent: Hey Liam, there’s some interest from Iran
LR: (drink) Great (drink) let’s do it (drink)
Agent: Liam, you know Iran is a dry country right?
LR: (drink) Yeah, yeah (drink), not much water (drink), no worries (drink).
Agent: No Liam, not that kind of dry.
LR: (drink) Hard grounds (hiccup), not much grass (vomit), it’s good (drink), I’ve played on (hiccup) worse (phone hits ground)
Agent: Fuck it, I’ve got my 10%.

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Kashima won the first home leg 2-0.

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0-0 draw in Tehran overnight so Kashima win 2-0 on aggregate for their first AFC title. Probably overdue as the most dominant J-League side.

Also worth remembering they’d have been bundled out in the group stage if we picked Buijs over Bobo. :joy:

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Anyone had experience buying J-League tickets? I’m heading over in March/April and keen to get to an Urawa game.

They play Yokohama at home on 5th April. What is the best way to secure tickets, either from Australia or in Japan?

Thanks in advance.

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I’m fairly sure we just got them from the J-League website. I believe there were English menu options for that. I also seem to remember we had to wait for about 4-6 weeks before the game before they became available for whatever reason.

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Awesome thanks mate.

Do you remember if they emailed an e-ticket or post it to you/your accomodation in Japan?

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I believe it was an emailed e-ticket.

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Legend - thanks mate.

I know Urawa get big crowds but they don’t tend to sell out, right?

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According to Transfermarkt their average attendance is 30k lower than capacity:

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/j1-league/besucherzahlen/wettbewerb/JAP1/saison_id/2017

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ACL is down to the semi’s.

Al-Hilal (Saudi) won 4-1 away at Al-Sadd (Qatar) in the first leg of the Western region cunt-off last night.

In the East Urawa host Guangzhou tonight in another match-up featuring two equally dislikeable teams. Worth noting that Urawa took out both sides that got through from our group, Ulsan and SIPG, in the round of 16 and quarters respectively.

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Al-Hilal fans haaaaaaaaaate Wests. Don’t mind them.

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Forza East Asia

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Imagine if the broadcast right holders for our confederation’s premier club competition had some kind of app which they could use for broadcasting the generic English-language feed of these matches with zero effort on their part.

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Urawa won 2-0 at home. Return legs in 2 weeks time.

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Iran put 14 past Cambodia, who I note are only ranked a few spots below Nepal…

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Back to the ACL, Al Hilal beat Urawa 1-0 at home in the first leg of the final. Return leg in Saitama in two weeks time.

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Come on East Asia