AFC Asian Cup 2011

Qatar is the host nation for the AFC Asian Cup 2011 after the previous tournament that has been hosted by four South East Asia's nations - Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. As for now,there must be many Malaysians who are mumbling about 'why there are no K Rajagopal in 2007?-we would have won the tournament if king raja coached our national team back then!' Hahaha! In your wildest dreams boys! The team needs to work harder than ever to even reach the tournament's group stage. Then it will took years for Malaysia to be among the Asia's elites.

So,back to the main topic. All the matches will be held in five different stadiums - four in Doha and one in Ar-Rayyan. The stadiums are Khalifa International Stadium - where the opening and final game will be played,Qatar SC Stadium,Al-Gharafa Stadium,Jassem bin Ahmed Stadium and Ahmed bin Ali Stadium. So to those who are going there this january,you better start to memories all the stadiums names if you don't want to be lost. Group A contains the host,Qatar,Kuwait,China and Uzbekistan. The top two teams from each group will qualify to the next round. In this group,the pundit has picked up Qatar and Uzbekistan to go through to the quarter finals.

Group B will be represented by Japan being drawn with Saudi Arabia,Jordan and Syria. In this group Japan and Saudi Arabia will be the favorites to pass through. Group C is the group of death where the Asia's giant will be contesting against each other. They are South Korea, Australia, Bahrain and the underdogs India. The Koreans and Aussies should be able to go through easily to the next round. And the final group, group D will be a war-zone! As Iraq,Iran,North Korea and UAE are being placed in the same bowl.