It has been a good start for Asia in the first five days of the FIFA World Cup.
The opening match between the hosts South Africa and Mexico was handled superbly by two times Asian Referee of the Year Ravshan Irmatov while his fellow AFC Elite Referee Yuichi Nishimura was just as outstanding in the second match between Uruguay and France.
We live in a global football community, but before these matches many media commentators outside of Asia could not understand why FIFA should appoint Ravshan and Yuichi to these prestigious matches.
They should look at Asian football and realise that there are some outstanding referees in Asia who can compare favourably with the best in Europe or South America?
But the good start to the competition was not restricted to the referees. On Day 2 South Korea tore apart the 2004 European Champions, Greece, with a display of skill and energy and were well worthy of their victory.
Unfortunately Australia played poorly and their German opponents played well in their Group D match. Australia were hindered by the sending off of Tim Cahill, one of the few controversial decisions of the first five days, but they will have been very disappointed with their performance and the 2 million Australians who watched the match live will look for better in the next match.
Cameroon, the African team that many think will go furthest in the tournament, came up against a highly organised and skillful Japanese side and lost 1–0, while today a well organised DPR Korea put up a tremendous display of defensive skills and commitment against tournament favourites Brazil. After going 2–0 behind they scored a goal in the final minutes for a final score of 2–1. Not a result predicted by the experts.
Being realistic, it will be difficult for an Asian team to win the competition or to feature in the final stages but the Asian teams have shown that they can challenge the European and South American teams. On the evidence so far, the gap has narrowed dramatically and this is a major plus so far from the tournament for AFC.
Maybe there will be no Asian team in the final stages, but could there be an Asian referee?