The 2011 AFC Asian Cup Final was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

match that took place on 29 January 2011 at the Khalifa International Stadium in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

, to determine the winner of the

2011 AFC Asian Cup The 2011 AFC Asian Cup was the 15th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011. It was the fifte ...

. The match was won by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, defeating

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

1–0 after extra time through a goal scored by

Tadanari Lee is a Japanese football player of Korean descent who plays for Singapore-based Albirex Niigata. He has made 11 appearances for the Japanese national team. He is sometimes known as Chung, in reference to his Korean name, Lee Chung-sung. Lee is ...

. Japan thus qualified for the

2013 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourna ...

as the representative from AFC. The tournament's closing ceremony was held immediately before kickoff. 37,174 people attended the match, although several thousand supporters with tickets were prohibited from entering the stadium after entry was closed 30 minutes before the match commenced. A television viewing audience of 484 million in 80 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, North America and North Africa witnessed Japan defeat Australia 1–0 in the final.

Background

The final was played between

and

. Japan, coached by Italian Alberto Zaccheroni, qualified for the final after defeating tournament host

in the quarter-final and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

after a penalty shoot-out in the semi-final. Australia, also led by a foreign coach (German Holger Osieck), opened the tournament with a 4–0 win over

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on their way to winning their group, before defeating

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

in the quarter-final, and thrashing

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

6–0 in the semi-final. For Australia, victory would bring its first ever title in an Asian tournament, having won three Oceania titles. The match marked a record for Australia's goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, becoming the country's most capped player with his 88th appearance. Shinji Kagawa missed the match due to injury.

Route to the final

Match details

Australia dominated the first half of the match, and had chances to score through their forwards

Tim Cahill Timothy Filiga Cahill (; born 6 December 1979) is an Australian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder but also played as a striker on many occasions. A box-to-box midfielder, Cahill became recognised for "his ag ...

and

Harry Kewell Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian association football coach, manager and former player. His most recent role as a club manager was at English National League side Barnet, and he is currently a first team coach at Celtic F.C ...

. Japan had a scare shortly after half-time when a cross from

Luke Wilkshire Luke Wilkshire (born 2 October 1981) is an Australian football coach and a former player. Born in Wollongong, Wilkshire played youth football for Albion Park, Wollongong Wolves ,and the Australian Institute of Sport before making his profession ...

was misjudged by Japan's goalkeeper

Eiji Kawashima is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Ligue 1 club Strasbourg. Kawashima played in Japan for Omiya Ardija, Nagoya Grampus Eight and Kawasaki Frontale before joining Lierse S.K. in Belgium in 2010. He then pla ...

and hit the crossbar, only for Cahill's shot to be cleared off the goal-line. Japan, however, had chances on the counter-attack including a wasted opportunity for Shinji Okazaki halfway through the second half, missing a header on goal while he was unmarked. The deadlock remained unbroken until the 20th minute of extra time, when Japan substitute

scored off a cross from

Yuto Nagatomo is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a full back for Japanese club FC Tokyo and the Japan national team. A graduate from the Meiji University, Nagatomo started his professional career with FC Tokyo in 2007, quickly establish ...

. Japan held its lead until the end of extra time to win the final. After the match,

Keisuke Honda is a Japanese professional football manager and former player. he is the current general manager & head coach of the Cambodia U-23. A versatile player, Honda usually played as an attacking midfielder, but could also play as a winger, a fa ...

was named the "most valuable player" of the tournament. Both managers praised their players after the match; Osieck expressed disappointment that Australia could not convert numerous opportunities to score, while Zaccheroni called Japan's win a "great victory" and hailed Lee's impact as a substitute.

References

External links

AFC Asian Cup 2011 Official Site
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2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

AFC

January 2011 sports events in Asia 21st century in Doha Australia–Japan sports relations

Background

Route to the final

Match details

See also

References

External links