Asia’s World Cup Story – 8. 1990 – A backward step?

May 4th, 2010 | by: Aidan | View Comments

The glory days for Asia of North Korea in 1966 seem a long way off now as we head in to the 1990 World Cup, and since then it’s been a struggle punctuated by the odd good showing and a few drawn games here and there. Would 1990 turn things around, or continue the struggle?

1990 Qualification

27 teams entered this time around, although Chinese Taipei were again assigned to the Oceania zone. Maldives were this year’s country to withdraw before the draw was made. Subsequent withdrawals would come from Bahrain, South Yemen and India. Six first round groups would produce six winners to contest a final group for the two Asian World Cup spots.

1986 finalists Iraq were eliminated in the first round by Qatar who topped group 1 thanks to a final day 2-2 draw in Baghdad. Saudi Arabia came through group two, which featured a magnificent 5-4 win over Syria.

United Arab Emirates edged past Kuwait on goal difference, as did China over Iran in their respective groups. Koreas North and South also both won their groups to set up the final qualifying group.

The final round in October 1989 was all played in Singapore, except for two matches in neighbouring Malaysia.

South Korea went unbeaten through the group and sealed a second consecutive finals appearance with a game to spare thanks to a 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia. A point on the final day would be enough to take United Arab Emirates through with them, and luckily for them they were up against the already qualified South Koreans.

If UAE failed to win then China, Qatar and North Korea were all still in with a chance, although Saudi Arabia were already eliminated. As it happened only Qatar managed to win of those other teams, and the UAE booked their ticket to Italy with a 1-1 draw with South Korea.

As for Chinese Taipei, they again managed to bang one goal in against New Zealand, but shipped 8 over the two legged preliminary playoff and that was the end of that for another four years.

1990 Finals

United Arab Emirates players were on a reported sweetener from the Emirates royal family whereby any goal scorer would receive a shiny new Rolls Royce. The teams’ performance was never going to cause financial difficulties for the royals however, although two players did strike it rich.

After an opening 2-0 defeat to Colombia the UAE took on West Germany in Milan. Two goals down at the break they came out in the rain in the second half and promptly shocked the Germans by banging one in from Khalid Ismail.

This stunned the Germans back into life and they completed a 5-1 one rout, but the UAE showed commendable enterprise and attacking ambition which should be applauded.

Their final group match went a similar way, this time Yugoslavia were the victors in a 4-1 win, Ali Thani winning himself a nice new motor with the UAE’s goal.

So could South Korea build on their promising performance in 1986? The simple answer to that is no. But to elaborate slightly, they began with a 2-0 defeat to Belgium before facing Spain in Udine.

Trailing to an early Michel goal, South Korea’s one notable contribution to the 1990 World Cup came thanks to a stonking free kick goal from Hwang Bo-Kwan, which was recorded at 114 km/h.

This left South Korea requiring a big win against Uruguay in their final match to have any chance of claiming one of the best 3rd place places, but it wasn’t to be. Uruguay claimed a last gasp victory which was just enough to send them through as a best loser.

South Korea’s 1990 vintage were not as enterprising or successful as they had been 4 years earlier, but were already easily the most consistent qualifier from Asia, gaining valuable experience at this rarefied level.

But 1990 was a step back for Asia I think. Both teams were quite negative at times, not that this is too surprising given the quality of opposition they faced. But if Asian football was to progress someone has to have the balls to have a go at the opposition. Could that happen in 1994? Quite possibly…

Want to know more?

Have a look at the previous parts of the story:

Part 1 dealt with 1930, 34 & 38
Part 2 looked at 1950 and 1954
Part 3 described the Asian struggles in 1958 and 1962
Success at last in Part 4, looking at 1966 & 1970
Solid showings, by Asian standards, in 1974 & 1978 in Part 5
Part 6 moves into the 80’s looking at 1982
And part 7 looks at 1986