2004 AFC Asian Cup

Venues

Qualification

Main article: 2004 AFC Asian Cup 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.

Notes: :1 Bold indicates champion for that year :2 Italic indicates host

Seeds

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. 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

• AUS Mark Shield
• BHR Abdul Rahman Al-Delawar
• BEN Coffi Codjia
• CHN Lu Jun
• IRN Masoud Moradi
• JPN Toru Kamikawa
• KOR Kwon Jong-chul
• KUW Saad Kamil Al-Fadhli
• LIB Talaat Najm
• MAS Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh
• KSA Naser Al-Hamdan
• SIN Shamsul Maidin
• SYR Mohammed Kousa
• THA Chaiwat Kunsata
• UAE Fareed Al-Marzouqi
• UZB Ravshan Irmatov ;Assistant Referees
• AUS Nathan Gibson
• BAN Mahbubur Mahbub
• CHN Liu Tiejun
• HKG Yau Tak Lee
• IND Sankar Komaleeswaran
• IDN Aries Soetomo
• IRQ Khalil Ibrahim Abbas
• JOR Fathi Arabati
• MDV Mohamed Saeed
• OMA Ali Ahmed Al Qasimi
• PLE Fayez Al Basha
• QAT Ali Al Khalifi
• SRI Chandrajith Marasinghe
• TKM Begench Allaberdyev
• TUN Taoufik Adjengui
• VIE Trương Thế Toàn

First round

All times are China standard time (UTC+8)

Group A

Li Jinyu Ali Ponaryo

Hao Haidong Li Ming Li Yi

A. Hubail Yousef

Group B

Report Al-Mutawa
Saeed

Al-Zboun

Ahn Jung-hwan

Cha Du-ri Ahn Jung-hwan

Group C

Kulyýew

Kulyýew Farhan Munir

Mahmoud

Group D

Nekounam Daei

Nosrati

Nakazawa Fukunishi

Al-Hosni

Knockout stage

All times are China standard time (UTC+8)

|30 July – Beijing||3||0 |31 July – Jinan||3||4 |30 July – Chengdu||2 (3)|| |31 July – Chongqing||1 (4)||1 (3) |3 August – Beijing|**** |||1 (3) |3 August – Jinan||3||4 |7 August – Beijing||1||3 |||4||2

Quarter-finals

Shishelov Djeperov Geynrikh Bikmaev Koshelev Juma Baba Farhan A. Hubail

Zheng Zhi

Alex Fukunishi Nakata Suzuki Nakazawa Miyamoto Al-Awadat Aqel Al-Shboul Ibrahim Al-Zboun Bani Yaseen

Lee Dong-gook Kim Nam-il Park Jin-seop

Semi-finals

Naser Tamada , Nakazawa

Zhao Junzhe
Li Xiaopeng
Sun Xiang
Shao Jiayi Mahdavikia Nekounam Mobali Golmohammadi

Third place playoff

Karimi Daei Farhan

Final

Main article: 2004 AFC Asian Cup final

Nakata Tamada

Statistics

Goalscorers

With five goals, A'ala Hubail and Ali Karimi are the top scorers in the tournament. In total, 96 goals were scored by 58 different players, with two of them credited as own goals.

;5 goals

• BHR A'ala Hubail
• IRN Ali Karimi ;4 goals
• KOR Lee Dong-gook ;3 goals
• CHN Shao Jiayi
• CHN Zheng Zhi
• IRN Ali Daei
• JPN Yuji Nakazawa
• JPN Keiji Tamada
• OMN Imad Al-Hosni ;2 goals
• BHR Husain Ali
• BHR Mohamed Hubail
• BHR Talal Yousef
• CHN Hao Haidong
• CHN Li Ming
• IRN Javad Nekounam
• JPN Takashi Fukunishi
• JPN Shunsuke Nakamura
• JPN Koji Nakata
• KOR Ahn Jung-hwan
• KSA Yasser Al-Qahtani
• TKM Begench Kuliyev
• UZB Alexander Geynrikh
• UZB Mirjalol Qosimov ;1 goal
• BHR Saleh Farhan
• BHR Duaij Naser
• CHN Li Jinyu
• CHN Li Yi
• CHN Xu Yunlong
• IDN Elie Aiboy
• IDN Ponaryo Astaman
• IDN Budi Sudarsono
• IRN Mohammad Alavi
• IRN Reza Enayati
• IRN Mohammad Nosrati
• IRQ Nashat Akram
• IRQ Razzaq Farhan
• IRQ Younis Mahmoud
• IRQ Hawar Mulla Mohammed
• IRQ Qusay Munir
• JPN Takayuki Suzuki
• JOR Anas Al-Zboun
• JOR Khaled Saad
• JOR Mahmoud Shelbaieh
• KOR Cha Du-ri
• KOR Seol Ki-hyeon
• KOR Kim Nam-il
• KWT Bashar Abdullah
• KWT Bader Al-Mutawa
• QAT Magid Mohamed
• QAT Wesam Rizik
• KSA Hamad Al-Montashari
• THA Sutee Suksomkit
• TKM Nazar Bayramov
• TKM Vladimir Bayramov
• UAE Mohamed Rashid
• UZB Vladimir Shishelov ;Own goals
• KOR Park Jin-seop (1) (for Iran)
• THA Rangsan Viwatchaichok (1) (for Oman)
• UAE Basheer Saeed (1) (for Kuwait)

Awards

Most Valuable Player

• JPN Shunsuke Nakamura

Top Scorer

• BHR A'ala Hubail
• IRN Ali Karimi

Fair-Play Award

Team of the Tournament

Marketing

Official match ball

The official match ball for the tournament was the Adidas Roteiro.

Mascot

The tournament's mascot was Bei Bei, a monkey character based on Journey to the West's Sun Wukong.

Official song

The AFC selected "宣言 (Declaration)", "Take Me To The Sky" (English Version Title) by Chinese singer Tiger Hu as the tournament's official song.

Controversies

Like other sports events, the Asian Cup 2004 was publicised as evidence of China's economic and athletic progress, being referred to by some as a prelude to the 2008 Summer Olympics. Many Chinese see the tournament as a success and take great pride in having showcased such an important sporting event in advance of the Olympic Games. However, the Japanese media and many other international observers have pointed out bad manners on the part of Chinese fans, and sparse attendance at the tournament, raising questions on China's ability to hold such sporting events.

There was also significant controversy over the refereeing of various matches in the tournament relating to the host China PR, specifically on China 3-0 Iraq and China 1-1 Iran. The match between China and Iraq featured a controversial penalty awarded to Zheng Zhi, while the two red cards awarded to Iran and the neglection of Zhang Yaokun's deliberate violent conduct during the second half of the match was also questioned by authorities such as the head coach of Islamic Republic of Iran.

Throughout the tournament, most Chinese fans in the stadia expressed anti-Japanese sentiments by drowning out the Japanese national anthem, displaying political banners and booing whenever Japan got the ball, regardless of the score or opponent. This was reported by the international media, and was aggravated when Koji Nakata apparently knocked in the ball with his right hand in the final. The PRC government responded by calling for restraint and increasing police numbers to maintain order. The Japanese government also called on the PRC to ensure the safety of Japanese fans, while specifically asking Japanese nationals or people of Japanese origin to not display any form of excessive pride. Despite the Chinese government's campaign, a riot started by Chinese fans broke out near the north gate of the Workers' Stadium, though reports differ as to the extent of the riot. As a result, some media groups have said that displays of "excessive Chinese nationalism during the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics have become a cause for concern for Chinese officials".

References

References

1. [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3541380.stm Chinese riot after Japan victory]
2. (2004-08-09). "The 'Hand of Koji'". Telegraph India.
3. (7 August 2004). "Asian Cup 2004 All-Star team named". AFC Asian Cup.
4. (4 January 2015). "HISTORIA DE LA COPA ASIA". ANOTANDO FÚTBOL.
5. (16 December 2004). "Football Year 2004 the Most Successful for Adidas". Adidas.
6. [https://music.douban.com/subject/1413728/ 宣言—―2004亚洲杯歌曲合辑（单碟装CD]
7. [http://ent.sina.com.cn/2004-07-18/1842446340.html?from=wap 胡彦斌唱出2004亚洲杯“宣言"]
8. Bodeen, Christopher. (7 August 2004). "Japan beats China to win Asian Cup again". USA Today.
9. Embassy of Japan in the People's Republic of China. (5 August 2004). "（緊急）サッカー・アジアカップの決勝戦に関連したご注意 ((Urgency) Attention on the Final Game of Soccer Asian Cup)". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.