Men From The Land Of Zen
South East Beast
The AFC is the organization that represents all Asian football it is not the most powerful that has to be contested between UEFA (the European governing footballing body) and CONMEBOL (the South American governing footballing body), but its not a pushover like the OFC (Oceania Football Confederation), its steady and competitive. Due to the regions size one can consider having zones with in the continent. The far east, the south, central, the 300 inspired Persia better known as the middle east and the south east. The latter is where my focus lies today but who are the protagonist in our pantomime. They are as followed Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, The Philippines, Indonesia, Myannmar(Burma), Timor- Leste and most recently Australia, a multitude of nations worth a google.
We know the players but are they fit for the game?In my opinion a firm no. I will have to be very honest the lack of quality between all the nations excluding one is apauling. If you don't know who is the exception let me mentally jog your mind to a solid guess. Which nation from the above seems to stand out in your mind and which nation out of the group most people are likely to know? With out Australia I would have a lot to say about very little thank God for the "Socceroos," and what is ironic they only recently moved to this confederation. Even with the might of the Aussies this region is still woeful in the production of even decent footballers not yet alone a world class one.In the last editiorial I zoned in on the best of the teams but here my hand is forced barring Australia yet again I have to pick the best of the worst. I will leave the best of for last I wonder who that could be. Closest ranked to the Pacific giants is the Kingdom of Thailand at 116th, to but this in perspective Thailand is ranked four places above Barbados a nation that has approximately a tenth of its population. The "War Elephants," have to be the challengers to the crown in this part of the world simply because there is no one else to oppose the monster which is Austrailia. Sadly Thailand only has one player of note and he plays for K. Lierse. S.K in the Belgian second division, Teerapthep Winothai is the Thais only hope he is a very good player but one man is not enough. Singapore,Vietnam and Indonesia at 134th, 135th and 138th in the world respectively deserves to be clustered together like small fish in a bucket waiting to be picked off. They are similiar to similiar, culturaly that is okay but in any sport individuality is heralded they have no players of note and there leagues are pedestrian at best. The reading gets worse for the following quartet Myannmar(Burma), Malaysia, The Philippines and Laos.Numbers never lie,155th, 159th, 160th and 171st in world rankings what can be said here nothing, but out of the four I am most disappointed in the Philippines. There is truly no "Thriller in Manilla," haven't the Spanish thought you guys anything, out of the four they were the only ones conquered by a world superpower and you would think the apetite for the game would be instilled in them. Cambodia, Brunei and Timor Leste are embarassing 179th, 183rd and 198th are their badges of shame I probably give Timor Leste a break just because population and size but if Trinidad a nation with roughly the same population of one million made it to the World Cup why can't you and Brunei with its riches should invest in the game so money would never be a problem. Now that we have stowed the bilge we can concentrate on the marquee team in this area. Australia is the flagship nation of this region but this was not always the case. The continent nation was previously apart of Oceania (OFC) where it contested a World Cup birth against the likes of New Zealand and Fiji not very stoute competition and because of their dominance and the lack of a concrete World Cup birth the giants were moved to the Asian Football Confederation.They have over the years justified their 29th FIFA rankings and has given the world footballers such as Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Lucas Neil, Mark Bresciano and the ever energetic Tim Cahill. The world knows Australia for its tremendous fighting spirit that never say die attitude a credo they have brought to the world's game. Multi WC appearances and a solid infostructure has layed foundations for future generations. The only hinderance to the sport in the country would be from other sports, Australia is a sparsley populated country despite of its size to due to its arid climate thus the population hugs the coast. Rugby, Netball, Cricket, Track and Field and Water base sports all vie for attention among Aussies and with so much sports and such a relatively low population of just above 21 million that is not alot of room.
What is needed to make the South East a football factory lots and lots of time and effort. What hampers this area is that it is improvish, the nations can't worry about football when they have schools to build and people to feed. I make this excuse for this part of the world and not places like Africa and South America because football is not at the fore front of the peoples heart. The simple fact is people don't care about the game enough in this land to want to become better, yes it may lie within a few individuals but that alone can't save the game, the lack of heroes play its part as well. A little lad from Africa whose star was not set bright can look at the likes of Didier Drogba, George Weah and Samuel Eto'o and say that can be me because they were like me but a youngster from South east Asia can't boost of such idols in football. This is the land of Elephants and Buddhism where deep concentration and elevation to a higher plain is smiled upon so I ask you why should something as trival as football worth thinking about.
Reptile
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