The 2015 Asian Cup
The 2015 AFC Asian Cup finished for me, what now ? The ICC cricket, F1 and………….
As from now, my 2015 Asian Cup has finished, although there are still four games to be played with the final being played in Sydney on the 31st Jan. The two teams I thought would be in, and probably win, have both been knocked out in the quarter final stages, so looks like Australia may be the favourites now, but they must overcome the might of the UAE first.
To date there has been 28 games played, 73 goals scored, 100 yellow cards and only 4 red cards (figures taken on the 24th Jan). the attendances have surpassed the last games in 2011 (held in Qatar so no surprises their), with figures up to and including Thursdays (22nd Jan), is a total 465,381 with 6 more games to be played.
Up to now the record attendance was Oman v Australia at Stadium Australia, Sydney with a total of 50,276.
The tournament has been a huge success with, like I said, a record number of spectators. So far, the atmosphere has been great with to my mind Iran winning on all fronts fan wise. My first game was the Opening ceremony with Australia V Kuwait, a crowd attendance of just over 25,000 witnessed the home team win 4-1.
On the subject of the fans, they have been great, the colours, no violence or flares, well, from what I have seen anyway and all in good humour apart from, maybe after a game,having just lost, which is understandable and oh yes, not forgetting when the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott made an appearance at the opening ceremony, there seemed to be a hell of a lot of booing.
In my personal opinion the Iran Crowd, although far less, than say the Australian crowd made up for it in sheer volume
While I am on the subject of the opening game may I just say a big thank you to Nikon Professional services (Jeremy), and his partner there for cleaning my sensor’s and my lenses, as well as letting me have the loan of their (Nikon) new 400mm/f2.8 lens, a magnificent bit of kit and so much lighter now, But I have to admit, I made the decision to borrow the lens, after already booking where I was going to sit, so I really missed not using my 200-400 mm/F4 , yes I know but I am so used to using that at games I kind of missed it as well as missing a few shots also. Would love that lens for when I do the cricket with an option of a 1.5 converter.
Here are some of the fans I captured in the ground.
Iranian fans. (Above)
An Aussie fan enjoying a beer, you would never see that in the EPL.
Iranian girls enjoying the atmosphere.
A Japanese fan, but to contradict your scarf..Not this year.
Japanese fan in full voice
Japanese fans always ready for a photo opportunity
Full of colour, a Uzbekistan fan.
One of my favourites, one of the Uzbekistan contingent.
A hopeful Uzbekistan fan.
An Uzbekistan woman ready for the big game.
Another favourite of mine, just love the tight crop, another Uzbekistan fan.
Their has been some great games so far with some great skills, always a plus especially here in Australia where football has a long way to go, but rest assured I believe the game will get stronger here year after year, taking on the might of the AFL which in my mind will, in years to come, will be bigger and better than the afore mentioned Aussie rules (in my mind still stuck in the eighties, but only my opinion which is not worth anything, hey, I would still photograph it, $$$). I am writing this, knowing that the two teams I had down to win have both been knocked out, Japan and Iran, so let’s face it, what do I know….
One quote I heard from a fan during a game, who was new to watching football was, ” it is nil – nil, but so exciting, how can that be ? ” kind of say’s it all really. I am not saying either that they were all great games, you will get bad games whatever comp you watch, and I have seen a few of them.
Here is some of the action or just an image I like;
(Below) Australia’s hero Tim Cahill get’s congratulated after scoring against Kuwait.
(Below) Ashkan Dejagah (Iran) cannot believe his luck as another goal gets dis-allowed.
Below; Keisuke Honda of Japan one of Japan’s biggest stars.
Below; Yousef Ahmad (Jordan) showing some good ball skills while playing against Japan.
Below; A blast from the past below, Ray ‘butch’ Wilkins ex England player, now head coach of the Jordan Football team.
Below; Kim Jin Su (Korea Republic) rising high to get the ball down on the wing.
(Below). Nam Tae Hee (Korea Republic) and Son Heung Min (Korea Republic), well, you can make your own caption on this one.
(Below). Nam Tae Hee (Korea Republic) on the attack but getting brought down by Vitaliy Denisov of Uzbekistan.
Vitaliy Denisov of Uzbekistan. Ps. Thank you Nikon
Below; Where there are winner’s, There has to be loser’s, here Vitaliy Denisov of Uzbekistan on the floor exhausted and dejected after losing 2 – 0 in extra time, in the Quarter Final to the Korea Republic.
Below; Son Heung Min (Korea Republic) shoots and scores past Ignatiy Nesterov (Uzbekistan) to put Korea 2-0 up in extra time in the 2015 Asian Cup quarter final game.
All in all, over the past few day’s I have met some great and friendly people, the organiser’s deserve a big thank you, so do all the volunteer’s who gave up their precious time to help out, may we see the last few games played with determination and grit like we have seen already, a big congratulations to which ever team will triumph on the 31st January in Sydney, but also to all the teams who took part and was part of this record breaking tournament. I would love to have been up there in Sydney, always open to offers.
Next on the agenda is to try and set up my family and Lifestyle shoots plus some marketing and promotion while also preparing for the ICC cricket World Cup while covering some of the Hyundai A-League games.
Until the next time………………..
Ps. Good Luck Australia
