Kolkata: Asia’s run in the 2026 World Cup ended with Australia’s defeat to Egypt in the round of 32.
Ahead of the penalties in Dallas, Australia replaced goalie Patrick Beach with Mat Ryan. Australia had done this in the qualifying play-off win against Peru in 2022 when Andrew Redmayne, the third-choice goalie, came in for Ryan and saved a penalty in the tie-breaker to book the ticket to Doha.
In the 2026 qualifiers, Ryan saved a late penalty against Saudi Arabia to secure a finals berth. On Friday, he couldn’t do much and Egypt won the shootout 4-2 after regulation time and extra-time ended 1-1.
Australia, who joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 2006, were the last to leave a World Cup expanded to 48 teams. Including debutants Jordan and Uzbekistan, nine Asian teams had qualified but only Australia and Japan progressed to the knockouts. Asian teams won only three of their 27 group league matches. South Korea coach Hong Myung-bo and Saudi Arabia federation president Yasser al-Misehal have resigned.
“It’s been a poor tournament for Asia,” Simon Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School, told HT. Beyond five or six countries, development across the continent too has been patchy and that is something for AFC to look at, he said over the phone from Peterborough, England, on Saturday. “Thirty-five percent of the world population are not represented in the World Cup,” he said, referring to India and China not qualifying.
In their sixth finals, this was the third time Australia had failed to progress from the first knockout round. For Japan, slipping at the first knockout stage threatens to become a psychological hurdle. Including this edition, Japan have lost three knockout matches after taking the lead.
“Japan may have reached a kind of a glass ceiling,” said Chadwick. “Over the past 30 years, they have made huge strides in football development. They have shown they can compete and qualify but will now need to take themselves to the next level.”
After Japan lost 1-2 to Brazil in the round of 32, former national team coach Philippe Troussier said on social media that they didn’t have the “resources to sustain the same attacking pressure” in the second half.
South Korea, who unlike Japan have players at top clubs like Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain, are at the end of an era, said Chadwick. “The Son (Heung-min) era.” There could be gaps in the pipeline that might need one or two tournaments to plug, he said. “Great football nations in Europe and South America usually do not have such gaps.”
In Saudi Arabia, foreign players may be crowding out local talent at clubs, said Chadwick. “They are where China were 10 years ago. There has been phenomenal investment at clubs (in the Saudi Pro League) and Al-Hilal are a record eight-time winners of the Asian Champions League but Saudi Arabia may be finding out that you cannot build top down and you cannot fast-track success.
“Japan should be their benchmark for development and it will have to be seen how their grassroots programmes work over the next eight years.” Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup.
The geo-political situation around Iran, who exited after three draws, was unfortunate, said Chadwick. Qatar’s impetus on player development was linked to hosting the World Cup and could get a boost if they win the bid for the 2036 Olympics, he said. India are among the bidders for the 2036 Games.
After losing to Canada, South Africa coach Hugo Broos spoke of the delay in decision making of his players. Jordan and Uzbekistan were also a step behind their opponents. At 7.2 seconds, Jordan’s ball recovery in the defensive third was over three seconds slower than Austria. Uzbekistan’s ball recovery against Portugal was 21 seconds, their opponents’ 14. Along with Iraq, who returned to the World Cup after 1986, they need to show they can do it again, said Chadwick.
“There are countries in Asia with ambition and desire to do better but even as more players from the continent get to Europe, the gap has increased,” he said. “Such is the rate of change in Europe and there’s so much investment in analytics, training and infrastructure that Asia needs to speed up.”
