2004 AFC Asian Cup

2004 AFC Asian Cup
2004年亚洲杯足球赛
Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	17 July – 7 August
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (3rd title)
Runners-up	China
Third place	Iran
Fourth place	Bahrain
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	96 (3 per match)
Attendance	937,650 (29,302 per match)
Top scorer(s)	A'ala Hubail ; Ali Karimi; (5 goals each)
Best player(s)	Shunsuke Nakamura
Fair play award	China

The 2004 AFC Asian Cup was the 13th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held from 17 July to 7 August 2004 in China. The defending champions Japan defeated China in the final in Beijing.

The tournament was marked by Saudi Arabia's unexpected failure to even make it out of the first round; a surprisingly good performance by Bahrain, which finished in fourth place; Jordan, which reached the quarterfinals in its first appearance and Indonesia, which gained their historical first Asian Cup win against Qatar. The final match between China and Japan was marked by post-match rioting by Chinese fans near the north gate of Beijing Workers' Stadium, in part due to controversial officiating and anti-Japanese sentiment resulting from historical tensions.^[1]

Venues

Beijing	Chongqing	Jinan	Chengdu
Workers' Stadium	Chongqing Olympic Sports Center	Shandong Sports Center	Chengdu Longquanyi Football Stadium
Capacity: 72,000	Capacity: 58,680	Capacity: 43,700	Capacity: 27,333

Qualification

The lowest-ranked 20 teams were placed in 6 preliminary qualifying groups of 3 and one group of 2, with the group winners joining the remaining 21 teams in 7 groups of 4. The top two of each of these groups qualified for the finals in China.

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament^{1, 2}
China	Hosts	28 October 2000	7 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)
Japan	2000 AFC Asian Cup winners	26 October 2000	4 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)
Kuwait	Qualifying round Group B winners	5 October 2003	7 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000)
Saudi Arabia	Qualifying round Group C winners	15 October 2003	5 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)
Indonesia	Qualifying round Group C runners-up	15 October 2003	2 (1996, 2000)
Oman	Qualifying round Group E winners	21 October 2003	0 (Debut)
Iraq	Qualifying round Group F winners	22 October 2003	4 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000)
Bahrain	Qualifying round Group F runners-up	22 October 2003	1 (1988)
South Korea	Qualifying round Group E runners-up	24 October 2003	9 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000)
Jordan	Qualifying round Group D runners-up	18 November 2003	0 (Debut)
United Arab Emirates	Qualifying round Group G runners-up	18 November 2003	5 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Uzbekistan	Qualifying round Group A winners	19 November 2003	2 (1996, 2000)
Qatar	Qualifying round Group B runners-up	19 November 2003	5 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000)
Iran	Qualifying round Group D winners	19 November 2003	9 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)
Thailand	Qualifying round Group A runners-up	21 November 2003	4 (1972, 1992, 1996, 2000)
Turkmenistan	Qualifying round Group G winners	28 November 2003	0 (Debut)

Notes:

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² Italic indicates host

Seeds

Pot A	Pot B	Pot C	Pot D
China Japan South Korea Saudi Arabia	Iran Iraq Kuwait Qatar	Indonesia Thailand United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan	Bahrain Jordan Oman Turkmenistan

Squads

Tournament summary

This competition saw a huge number of surprises. The first surprise named Bahrain was in group A, which, despite being just its second tournament, held on China and fellow neighbor Qatar before beating Indonesia 3–1, with the Hubail brothers Mohamed and Ala'a instrumental in bringing Bahrain to the quarter-finals. Host China, after a shock draw to Bahrain, easily progressed to the next round after thrashing Indonesia 5–0 before Xu Yunlong scored the decisive goal in China's hard fought win over Qatar to process.

In group B, Jordan emerged as a second surprise, as the country just made its debut in the competition. Jordan surprised the whole tournament by two draws to the United Arab Emirates and, especially, a successful goalless draw to South Korea which had already finished in fourth place at the 2002 FIFA World Cup earlier, between that, Jordan shocked Kuwait with two late goals to seal a 2–0 victory, thus finishing second and progressed to the next round alongside South Korea, which, after being held by Jordan, decisively beat Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to progress.

The two other debutants were Turkmenistan and Oman in group C and D surprised by not finishing bottom in their group, though they failed to progress. Instead, it was the two experienced Saudi Arabia and Thailand which disappointed most of fans, finishing bottom after disastrous performances. In group C, Uzbekistan also surprised by topping the group with three straight 1–0 win while Japan and Iran were able to progress in group D after a final goalless draw and better result than Oman. Iraq was the other qualifier in group C, after beating both Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia only by one goal margin.

The quarter-finals saw Jordan caused significant problem for Japan, and Jordan was thought to have almost qualified for the semi-finals in the penalty shootout. However, four straight misses later cost Jordan's semi-final dream to end. Uzbekistan and Bahrain held on in a 2–2 draw and Bahrain prevailed after penalty shootout. Host China easily crushed Iraq 3–0, with Zheng Zhi scored two penalties to take Iraq home, while South Korea and Iran created the most phenomenon match in the tournament, an insane thriller where Iran prevailed 4–3 in what would be perceived as the greatest Asian Cup match in the history.

The first semi-final saw Iran and host China battling for the final, with both being held 1–1, despite Iran was down to ten men. China eventually won in penalty shootout. The other semi-final was another insane thriller between Bahrain and Japan, with the Japanese won after extra times thanked for a goal by Keiji Tamada in early minutes of the first half of extra times, thus sent Japan to the final against host China. Iran overcame Bahrain in a consolidating third place encounter, 4–2, to acquire bronze.

The final in Beijing saw China lose to Japan, with a controversial handball goal by Koji Nakata that sealed the game.^[2] The win meant Japan had successfully defended their title they achieved four years ago. The outcome frustrated many Chinese supporters, who ended up rioting outside Workers' Stadium over referee's controversial decision allowing the handball goal of Koji Nakata.

Officials

Referees

Assistant Referees

Nathan Gibson
Mahbubur Mahbub
Liu Tiejun
Yau Tak Lee
Sankar Komaleeswaran
Aries Soetomo
Khalil Ibrahim Abbas
Fathi Arabati
Mohamed Saeed
Ali Ahmed Al Qasimi
Fayez Al Basha
Ali Al Khalifi
Chandrajith Marasinghe
Bengech Allaberdyev
Taoufik Adjengui
The Toan Truong

First round

All times are China standard time (UTC+8)

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China (H)	3	2	1	0	8	2	+6	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Bahrain	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5	Advance to knockout stage
3	Indonesia	3	1	0	2	3	9	−6	3
4	Qatar	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1

Source: RSSSF
(H) Hosts

17 July 2004

20:00

China	2–2	Bahrain
Zheng Zhi 58' (pen.) Li Jinyu 66'	Report	M. Hubail 41' Ali 89'

Workers' Stadium, Beijing

Attendance: 40,000

Referee: Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (Malaysia)

18 July 2004