Asian League Discussion

I thought I woud start a discusison on various Asian leagues, this can be a place to discuss league play from Japan, Korea, Australia, any of the Middle Eastern countries or wherever in Asia.

I will begin with this article on the start of the J League in Japan and K League in Korea this weekend:

Japan and Korea League Previews

In Japan, Nagoya Grampus won the title last seaosn ending Kashima Antlers 3 year reign as champions. Nagoya are coached by Dragan Stojkovic the ex Yugoslav international who ende dhis career with Nagoya Grampus before going into coaching. US/Iranian coach Afshin Ghotbi left Iran's national team to coach Shimuzu S Pulse while Urawa Reds, according to the article are Japan's best supported club, averaging nearly 40,000 fans per match!

In Korea, champions FC Seoul spent a lot of money in bringing Colombian playmaker Mauricio Molina over from Asian champions Seongnam and a former Asian player of the year Server Djeparov from Uzbekistan. Suwon, another traditional power in Korea signed another Uzbek, forward Alexander Geynrikh who had a good Asian Cup with his national team. Suwon also nabbed another player from Seongnam, Korea's goalie Jung Sung Ryung.

While the leagues are starting in Korea and Japan it is nearing its end in Australia where, Central Coast into A League Final vs Brisbane.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-a-league-flores

The Australian A-League has serious financial troubles, one club North Queensland Fury just folded as the country's football federation said they could not support the club, plans to expand by adding a 2nd club in Sydney have been halted and now the league's best team, Brisbane Roar, who play in this Sunday's final are being sent into league administration so that new investors can be found,

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=reu-australia

Obviously the J-League games have been postponed this week following the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

An article on Sunday's final in Australia between Brisbane and Central Coast:

Brisbane Favorites In Final

Brisbane have 3 wins and 2 draws in their matches this season vs Central Coast. The law of averages would say Central Coast is due for a win. This also will be their 3rd trip to the final but Brisbane's first.

As the situation worsens in Japan the J league has obviously canceledd all games through early April and will review when to resume play at a later date.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=a...leaguesuspended

Top tier clubs Vegalta Sendai and Montedio Yamagata, plus Mito Hollyhock of J-League 2 all suffered serious damage as result of Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami along Japan’s northeast coast. Representatives of those clubs were not able to attend Tuesday’s meeting.

Clubs are not only dealing with the immediate damage caused by the disaster but were also seeking to preserve electricity at a time of national shortage.

“Whether we play at night and use the floodlights or not, an enormous amount of electricity is used to host one match,” Ibata said. “In these circumstances when we’re short on electricity, it wouldn’t be right to be playing.”

A sensible decision.

The J League will start up again on April 23:

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=r...eagueresumption

While attention needs to focus on the rebuilding process it may help to have some extra entertainment by playing league matches. Plus the clubs from areas unaffected by the earthquake need to get on with their season. I think they are doing the correct thing in waiting for over a month to start play up again. If I recall this is similar to what happened in Chile last year after their own devastating earthquake.

We did not mention this before but the Australian A League Final was very dramatic, after a 0-0 tie after 90 minutes Central Coast went 2-0 in front in extra time only to have Brisbane fight back and tie the game 2-2 and send it to penalties where Brisbane eventually won 4-2. The club's first ever league championship.

Japan's national team beat a J League All Star team 2-1 in a charity match for the earthquake/tsunami victims which was played in Osaka.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=reu-japan

A nice gesture and the game sold out very quickly.

Some interesting developments in Bahrain,

3 Bahrain national team players detained, they were detained for being involved in political protests against the government and 6 clubs, two first division and 4 second division ones, all associated with the Shiite based opposition have withdrawn from the league.

This should get interesting, Diego Maradona hired to coach UAE club Al Wasl, he signed a two year contract starting this September. The club's chairman by the way is the brother of Dubai's ruler.

Good publicity for the club, a good pay day for Maradona and at least a chance for some coaching redemption for him. We will be hearing a lot more about Al Wasl in the coming months. I guess the question many are asking though is how long before Maradona self destructs there?

Posted by Don Balon in the Campeonato Brasileiro forum about Fluminense's Argentinian midfielder Dario Conca heading to a Chinese club:

Conca will be paid 10.6 million euros per year to play for Guangzhou Evergrande! Only Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi and Yaya Toure will make more money per season.

Is this the start of the Chinese league flexing some financial muscle or just a one off event by a single club?

Conca is a pretty good midfielder but likely never will play in Europe and I imagine the Chinese club would be unable to lure away one of the European based players to play there. Conca, however, is not a national team player and does not have to worry about losing his place on his national team (Argentina) if he makes a big money move to a league outside of the mainstream.

Rufus asks a good question though if this is the start of Chinese teams looking to start spending big on bringing players over. We should find out soon enough if we see other players making the leap over there.

A couple of Australian internationals are on the move, defender Lucas Neill has signed with Al Jazira of the UAE while Harry Kewell has returned to Australia to play for Melbourne Victory. Kewell should help bring fans in but you do wonder how much he has left in him? Neill, on the other hand, is still a useful defender.

And Brett Emerton is leaving Blackburn in England to return home to play for Sydney. A big boost for Australia's A League.

Dunga is the new coach of Al Rayyan of Qatar.