COACH: Khalil AL-ZAYANI




GOALKEEPERS:

Mohamed AL-DEAYEA
Nasser HEJAZI
Ya'akov HODOROV


DEFENDERS:

Makoto HASEBE
HONG Myung-bo
Masami IHARA
KIM Ho-kon
KIM Min-jae
LEE Young-pyo
Yūto NAGATOMO
Saleh AL-NAIMA
SUN JIhai
Abdullah ZUBROMAWI


MIDFIELDERS:

Fahad AL-BISHI
Yasuhito ENDŌ
Shinji KAGAWA
Mehdi MAHDAVIKIA
Shunsuke NAKAMURA
Hidetoshi NAKATA
Yasuhiko OKUDERA
PARK Ji-sung
Giora SPIEGEL
Youssef AL-THUNAYAN


FORWARDS:

Majed ABDULLAH
CHA Bum-kun
Ali DAEI
Kunishige KAMAMOTO
KIM Joo-sung
LEE Wai Tong
Kazuyoshi MIURA
SON Heung-min
Mordechai SPIEGLER


__________________________________________________


RESERVES:


GOALKEEPERS:

Dudu AOUATE
CHOW Chee Keong
Ali AL-HABSI
LEE Won-jae


DEFENDERS:

Tal BEN HAIM
Adnan DIRJAL
FAN Zhiyi
Abdelkarim HASSAN
Takumi HORIIKE
JIA Xiuquan
Mahboub JUMA'A
Mohammed AL-KHILAIWI
KIM Jung-suk
KIM Tae-young
Yūji NAKAZAWA
PARK Kyung-hoon
Jarnail SINGH
SOH Chin Ann
Atsuto UCHIDA


MIDFIELDERS:

Omar ABDULRAHMAN
Nashat AKRAM
Parviz GHELICHKHANI
HA Seok-ju
Keisuke HONDA
Ali KARIMI
KIM Nam-il
PAK Doo-ik
PAK Sung-jin
Ali PARVIN
Mirjalol QOSIMOV
Haim REVIVO
Đỗ THỚI VINH
YOO Sang-chul
ZHENG Zhi


FORWARDS:

Suk BAHADUR
P.K. BANERJEE
Yossi BENAYOUN
CHEUNG Chi Doy
Sami AL-JABER
Mansour MUFTAH
Saeed AL-OWAIRAN
Ahmed RADHI
Andi RAMANG
Hussein SAEED
Maksim SHATSKIKH
Soetjipto SOENTORO
Adnan AL-TALYANI
Mehdi TAREMI
Jasem YACOUB

Definitely not an easy task. If you have any suggestion or want explanations for some choices, you're welcome!

I know that we use to have two goalkeepers in the first squad but I didn't know who should be left out between Chow and Hejazi. Thangaraj was another valid choice.

Any help for the Best XI? It might end up being a mix of Japan and South Korea.

Well if you’re including Israeli players then I would definitely have included Hodorov and Spiegler in the first team. I also would have expected Lee Woon-Jae in this team. You have Majed Abdullah in both first team and reserves too, and Fahad Al-Bishi should be in the first team but isn’t even in the reserves, IMO he was even better than Al-Owairan. I don’t see a problem with including players from some of the “smaller” teams like Malaysia and India but the reality is that the teams like Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea and Iran are easily the most successful teams from Asia and have many players better than anyone from those smaller nations.

Abdullah in the reserves is a typo. Yeah, I tried to include players from more countries but I'm aware that this team may even include only players from China, Iran, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. In fact, the first team includes now only players from those countries plus Chow, Banerjee and Radhi. Of course, I'll make more changes as soon as I get more suggestions.

I meant Mordechai Spiegler and not Giora Spiegel But Spiegel is a good choice for this team too.

BTW, what about players from Uzbekistan? Krasnitskiy and Qosimov would be good enough to be here and would play in the Asian federation for club and country if they were active today.

For the starting XI, maybe something like this:


It's quite hard because there's no natural right back of starting XI quality (Sun Jihai was just an ok player, nothing more) so I went for 3 at the back with Lee and Park as WBs/SMFs and while Hasebe is probably the 3rd best CB he's also the best DMF here so I put him in midfield. I would have liked to fit Abdullah in but that's difficult too. I don't rate Nakata that highly tbh but I guess on "reputation" he should be here even though I think Kagawa was comfortably better than him at his peak.

Mordechai hadn't come to mind and I guess I misread Spiegler in your previous comment, so I added Giora.
Who should Mordechai replace, Banerjee, Lee or Radhi? All them are widely regarded as the best player in their respective country but Banerjee ,may be the least popular choice.
Regarding the Uzbek players, I'd wait for more opinions. As we decided not to consider Australia, should Uzbekistan be considered European or Asian as it was part of Soviet Union?

Dudu Aouate was one of the best La Liga goalkeepers of his time, performing consistently on top level for longer than any other Asian GK before him - and longer than most other Asian players in Europe. Tal Ben Haim should also be in reserves at least.
Other possible names would be Ali Parvin, Pak Doo Ik, Kim Tae-young, Kim Nam-il or Nashat Akram.
About the Uzbekistan debate: I find it hard to compare Uzbekistan with Australia since Australia is still the same country, they just purposely switched the conferederation. From Uzbekistan I'd just consider players from post indepence and those whose career spanned through both Soviet and independent era (for example Qosimov). Krasnitsky, Pshenichnikov or Abduraimov shouldn't be here IMO, since both their NT and club careers took place in European competitions.

Israel is a member of UEFA not AFC.....

Israel was originally a member of AFC and had its peak as Asian national team as they won an Asian Cup in the 1960s.

Nagatomo seems the better choice as RWB, as you don't rate Nakata that much, you could ditch him from starting eleven and put Park J-S as box-to-box midfielder.

I thought Daei was good enough, even to be the starting CF.

I have the same thought about Nagatomo. His Inter career was very good in my opinion. It was overshadowed by the fact that the team didn't win major trophies.

First, great job on that!

Second, I'm surprised Mokhtar Dahari and Javad Nekounam aren't listed even on reserves. Those two are on my first team.

Here's some more opinions:
1. I think Saleh Nu’eimeh is regarded as the best defender in Saudi Arábia history. He was the captain of the team that won the 1988 AFC Cup and was chosen for the team of the tournament. He should be ahead of Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi.
2. I would replace Fahad Al-Bishi with Javad Nekounam, and Ahmed Radhi with either Ali Daei or Mokhtar Dahari.
3. It makes more sense using Mehdi Mahdavikia as a RWB and move Park Ji-sung to the left on this formation.

My starting XI would be something like:
GK Mohamed AL-DEAYEA
RB Mehdi MAHDAVIKIA
CB Masami IHARA
CB HONG MYUNG-BO
LB Yasuhiko OKUDERA / Yuto NAGATOMO / LEE YOUNG-PYO
MF Makoto HASEBE
MF Hidetoshi NAKATA
MF PARK JI-SUNG
MF Shinji KAGAWA / Shunsuke NAKAMURA / Majed ABDULLAH (as FW)
FW CHA BUM-KUN
FW SON HEUNG-MIN

nice job. i know It is difficult to access the information of Asian players. and this list has some problems.
ghelichkhani won 3 internatioal asian cup. more than any asian. and he is not in first team.
ali daei isn't in first team with 109 international goals. and also said al-owairan with that nice goal against belgium. same about and lee won jae. mukhtar dahari. paulino alcantra(if considered asian) and...

my list :


GOALKEEPERS

Mohamed AL-DEAYEA
LEE Won-jae
Nasser HEJAZI
(
additional option:
Ali AL-HABSI
CHOW Chee Keong
)




DEFENDERS:

FAN Zhiyi
Makoto HASEBE
HONG Myung-bo
Masami IHARA
LEE Young-pyo
Tal BEN HAIM
Yūto NAGATOMO
SUN JIhai
Abdelkarim HASSAN
Mohammed AL-KHILAIWI
(
additional option:
Yūji NAKAZAWA
Maya YOSHIDA
Abdullah ZUBROMAWI
Vitaliy DENISOV
)



MIDFIELDERS:

Shinji KAGAWA
Parviz GHELICHKHANI
Mehdi MAHDAVIKIA
Shunsuke NAKAMURA
Hidetoshi NAKATA
PARK Ji-sung
Haim REVIVO
Giora SPIEGEL
Ali PARVIN
KIM Joo-sung
Yossi BENAYOUN
(
additional option:
ZHENG Zhi
Ali KARIMI
Server DJEPAROV
Keisuke HONDA
Fahad AL-BISHI
Javad NEKOUNAM
Ali JABBARI
Yasuhiko OKUDERA
Karim BAGHERI
Valeri BROSHIN
)


FORWARDS:

Paulino ALCANTRA
SON Heung-min
Ali DAEI
Majed ABDULLAH
CHA Bum-kun
Kunishige KAMAMOTO
LEE Wai Tong
Kazuyoshi MIURA
(
additional option :
Mukhtar DAHARI
Sunil CHETRI
Ali MABKHOUT
Sami AL-JABER
Younis MAHMOUD
Sardar AZMOUN
Mehdi TAREMI
Ahmed RADHI
Shinji OKAZAKI
Omar AL-SOMAH
)

I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!!!! If I remember someone else, I will edit this

I can agree with some choices here. I don't know about Paulino ALCÁNTARA. It's true that he capped for Philippines in 1917 but I'm not convinced. I'd like the opinion of other users too.

Not conviced of what?