Jordan, Iraq claim opening wins at Asian Cup as Malaysia and Indonesia fall
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Jordan's Raja'ei Ayed in action with Malaysia's Safawi Rasid on Jan 15.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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DOHA – Malaysia coach Kim Pan-gon has apologised to fans following his side’s 4-0 loss to Jordan in their Asian Cup opener on Jan 15, and vowed that the team will improve in the last two group games in Qatar.
Fellow Asean side Indonesia also suffered a defeat on the same day, 3-1 to Iraq, as the West Asian teams flexed their muscles in their respective group openers.
“Congratulations to Jordan, they showed good performance tonight and they deserved to win as they were physically and technically better than us,” said Malaysia’s South Korean coach Kim.
“We were looking for an attacking approach tonight but Jordan were too strong. The first half was very tough and it’s difficult to say... we will review this game and correct things.
“I’m sorry for Malaysian fans, we expected to give a strong challenge but couldn’t and I feel sorry for that. We need to recover quickly from this loss to face the remaining two games.”
South Korea and Bahrain are the other teams in Group E.
On a day when all matches featured four goals, Jordan’s thumping victory moved them top of the group – above South Korea who beat Bahrain 3-1 earlier
Jordan’s Mahmoud Al-Mardi put his hand up for an early contender for goal of the tournament.
The winger gave his side the lead with a shot from outside the box that floated over the goalkeeper and into the top corner.
Mousa Tamari doubled their lead from the spot after a penalty was awarded for a foul on Yazan Al-Naimat following a VAR (video assistant referee) review, while Al-Mardi made it 3-0 when he scored his second from a tap-in after being set up by Al-Naimat.
Montpellier’s Tamari grabbed his second when he lobbed the goalkeeper in the 85th minute to complete the rout.
Like Malaysia, Indonesia were making their return to the Asian Cup for the first time since 2007. Although the South-east Asians were mostly able to hold their own against Iraq for 45 minutes, they ran out of gas in the second half.
Iraq’s Mohanad Ali scored first when he was through on goal with just the goalkeeper to beat.
But Marselino Ferdinan equalised after some fine work from Yakob Sayuri, who skipped past a challenge and crossed the ball into the six-yard box for an easy goal in the 37th minute.
However, Iraq burst Indonesia’s bubble late in first-half added time when Osama Rashid scored from close range after the goalkeeper spilled a shot.
Substitute Aymen Hussein then won a header in the 75th minute and volleyed home from the edge of the six-yard box to make it 3-1 and seal the win for the Iraqis.
“First of all, congratulations to the Iraqi team for winning this match. But even so, the Indonesian national team showed their best fight and good performance in this match,” said Indonesia coach Shin Tae-yong.
The South Korean, however, questioned the referee’s decision to award Iraq’s second goal, which he felt was not legitimate as another Iraq player, Ali, was in an offside position.
“I don’t know why the second goal was not considered offside. It was 100 per cent offside,” he added.
“If this is really a wrong decision from the referee, we regret it, especially since it happened at an important moment.”
Iraq are second in Group D behind four-time champions Japan, who beat Vietnam 4-2 on Jan 14. REUTERS
