January 9 – Japan’s coach Hajime Moriyasu part blamed the heat for his team’s underwhelming 3-2 win against Turkmenistan and acknowledged that Japan will need to improve as the tournament progresses.
Things rarely go according to plan in African football, as one French publication emphasised this week. The decision to strip Cameroon of staging this coming summer’s African Nations Cup may have been a deeply hurtful blow to the original hosts but hardly took anyone by surprise given the nature of African football’s leadership which has, quite frankly, become a laughing stock.
By Abdelaziz Abuhamar
January 10 – The Iraq national team broke an unwanted record when they posted their first group game victory over counterpart Vietnam in Group D.
By Paul Nicholson in Abu Dhabi
January 9 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has issued a statement condemning the Saudi-backed pirate broadcaster beoutQ’s theft of live matches from the Asian Cup currently being played in the UAE.
By Samindra Kunti
January 9 – Four-time Asian champions Japan came back from a first-half deficit to defeat a stubborn Turkmenistan 3-2 and claim their first three points at the 2019 Asian Cup.
By David Owen
January 9 – Surging player costs and one-off items pushed Everton, the club from the blue end of Merseyside, back into the red in 2017-18, in spite of a 34% jump in commercial revenue.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 9 – The video assistant refereeing system, whilst gaining in overall popurity, has had its fair share of criticism since being gradually introduced across European and international football.
January 9 – Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah has won the African footballer of the year award for the second consecutive time.
January 9 – Dutchman Pim Verbeek has forged a managerial career in Asia and, with his latest team, Oman, has had immediate success with their surprise win at the Gulf Cup last year. Expectations are high for the Asian Cup. He spoke to Samindra Kunti
January 9 – The timing is presumably co-incidence but having cast off the oppressive shadow of Jose Mourinho’s management regime for the more free-flowing joy of Ole Gunnar Solsjaer (albeit interim), Manchester United has announced it will open three “experience centres” in China by 2020.
January 9 – Japan’s captain Maya Yoshida has called on Japan to forget about disappointment four years ago and deal with the pressure at the 2019 Asian Cup. The Samurai Blue kick off their campaign against Turkmenistan in Group F.
January 8 – Iraq coach Srecko Katanec has backed his team to grow during the 2019 Asian Cup, but demanded improvement from his players, citing a ‘horrible’ first half and his own mistakes after a hard-fought 3-2 win over Vietnam.
By Samindra Kunti in Abu Dhabi
January 8 – In a game of nerves, overconfidence and plenty of naive defending Iraq broke Vietnamese hearts with a last-minute free kick from Ali Adnan to win a topsy-turvy Group E game 3-2.
January 8 – Egypt has replaced Cameroon as hosts of this summer’s Africa Cup of Nations, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced today.
January 8 – Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, now in charge of the Philippines, expressed his pride at his side’s performance against hotly fancied South Korea in their first-ever appearance at the Asian Cup Finals on Monday.