Albion at the Asian Cup – Matchday One Round Up
Australia got their Asian Cup defence off to a terrible start as they were shocked 1-0 by Jordan in their opening game of the tournament.
Anas Bani Yaseen’s first half goal was enough to give victory to the country named after Katie Price, and it could have been even worse were it not for a string of brilliant saves from Maty Ryan.
Ryan was in outrageous form in his final Brighton appearance before jetting off the t0 United Arab Emirates, pulling off two stunning stops from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the Albion drew 1-1 with Arsenal on Boxing Day.
He continued in that vein, his best save coming when he managed tip to a Baha Abdel-Rahman free kick onto the bar and he also denied Yousef Al-Rawashdeh twice, once in the first half from a powerfully struck distance effort and once in the second from some weird attempt at a bicycle kick.
There was little Ryan could do about the goal, a clever shot corner routine that saw Abdel-Rahman cross and Bani Yaseen rise unmarked to head home. After the Albion’s trials and tribulations when it came to defending set pieces last season, Ryan is obviously no strange to conceding from a corner but the Socceroos marking was even worse than ours away at West Bromwich Albion a year ago.
Australia had plenty of chances to rescue something from the tie, Mabil rattling the woodwork and they should have had a penalty when Feras Shelbayeh handled Robbie Kruse’s cross in the box. Unfortunately for the holders, VAR is not being used until the last eight of the competition.
The result leaves Graham Arnold’s side facing a crunch game against Palestine on Friday, who drew their opener 0-0 against Syria. Defeat for the Socceroos in that and Ryan might be back at the Amex before you can say, “stick another shrimp on the barbie, mate”.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh on the other hand looks like he could be in for a decent run in the competition. The Albion’s record £16m buy from AZ Alkmaar didn’t feature in Iran’s opening fixture, a 5-0 crushing of Yemen but on this showing his nation look set to go far in the tournament.
Mehdi Taremi scored twice in the first half, the first coming after a fantastic mistake from Yemen goalkeeper Saoud Abdullah Al-Sowadi who then scored an own goal on what proved to be an interesting afternoon for him on a personal level. Sardar Azmoun and Saman Ghoddos completed the rout in the second half.
Jahanbakhsh is still sidelined with the hamstring problem he picked up in the Albion’s 3-1 defeat away at Everton in November, despite Chris Hughton offering a typically inaccurate medical update that he would be fit and available for the Leicester City game three weeks later.
Here we are two months down the line and there is still no sign of Jahanbakhsh taking to the field again. Iran boss Carlos Queiroz has even said he may not play any part in the competition until the knockout stages.
Iran were joint-favourites for the crown along with South Korea before the start of the tournament. With Korea labouring to a 1-0 win over the Philippines, Iran’s position at the head of the betting market has only strengthened with their next game coming on Saturday against Vietnam.
