Uzbekistan’s Asian Cup Journey: What We Gained

The Asian Cup, full of excitement and unexpected results, has concluded. The tournament hosted by Qatar, along with its high level of organization, demonstrated that several national teams on the continent have become stronger in terms of play and physicality.

In particular, the fact that Uzbekistan's neighbor Tajikistan reached the quarterfinals in its debut, or even exited the group stage of the tournament, Jordan—whose fate was uncertain until the last round—eventually became the vice-champion, and of course, none of the teams that were considered the main contenders for the championship at the start of the competition, such as South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Australia, failed to reach the final, caused quite a stir.

The national team of Uzbekistan, which fought for prize places in the competition, managed to reach the top eight teams of the Asian Cup. Despite a series of losses during the tournament, the team improved with each game and recorded the desired result. However, in the quarter-finals, during the match against Qatar, luck did not favor the "white wolves." As a result of unsuccessful penalties, the Uzbekistan national team had to say goodbye to the continental championship.

Although there were positive changes in the national team's game, fans understandably had several questions: "Why did the coach give so few chances to the nominal strikers during the matches? Why does Uzbekistan always falter in penalty kicks? How did Uzbek football benefit from this championship?"

QALAMPIR.UZ spoke with one of the leaders of Uzbek football fans, Javohir Shokirov, who attended the Asian Cup matches in Qatar.

Shokirov explained that Uzbekistan could have gone further in the competition, but several factors prevented this. Injuries to players during the tournament and the exclusion of some key players from the national team squad contributed to the result.

He also noted that some matches in the tournament raised doubts.

For reference, Uzbekistan's best result in the Asian Cup came in 2011 when the team, coached by Vadim Abramov, reached the top 4 teams of the tournament.