"I set my East Asian pride" ESPN positively...The Middle East's 'Sweeping Four Rivers' is hailed → ACLE Underdog Rebellion heralded
"I set my East Asian pride" ESPN positively...The Middle East's 'Sweeping Four Rivers' is hailed → ACLE Underdog Rebellion heralded
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As Kawasaki Frontale, the Japanese professional football J1 League, broke through the Middle East and became the only East Asian club to reach the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Elite (ACLE), ESPN and other media outlets are busy pointing out the meaning.
All three other semi-finals were swept by the "sand wind" from Saudi Arabia.
Gwangju FC (Korea) and Buriram United (Thailand) and Yokohama Marinos (Japan) both dropped their heads and loaded themselves on a plane to their home country after being dragged around, with a three-goal half-time difference.
East Asia, led by Korea and Japan, which had won Asian soccer hegemony due to their strength in the Asian club competition, seemed to have completely given the lead to the "West."
Kawasaki, however, was different. He succeeded in surviving.
On the 28th (Korea Standard Time), he beat Al-Sad (Qatar) 3-2 after extra-time blood in the 2024-2025 ACLE quarterfinals at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Kawasaki smiled brightly in the 8th minute of the first half of extra time, defending the winning goal of captain and main attacking midfielder Wakizaka Yasto until the end.
He has reached the quarterfinals three times between 2007 and 2008 and 2017, but it is the first time in the team's history that the semifinal stage has been held.
ESPN said, "It was the only game in the quarterfinals of this tournament where you can use the words 'I competed'," adding, "Kawasaki won without losing concentration until the end. The 'Large 8' club, which has had three bitter cups in the quarterfinals so far, has achieved the feat of successfully advancing to the semifinals for the first time."
"The possibility was raised that the Middle Eastern club could sweep the semifinals, but Kawasaki was not happy about it. We were able to recover some of our East Asian soccer pride (through Kawasaki), which had outperformed Western Asia in the ACL over the past 20 years," he said, highlighting the significance of the eighth-ranked team in the J-League.
Alnasr (Saudi Arabia), who defeated Yokohama 4-1, will compete for the final.
Alnasr is a team full of star players who played in big European clubs during offense and defense, including Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Sadio Mane (Senagal), Marcello Brozovic (Croatia) and Emrik Laport (Spain). He is considered a strong candidate for the title at this year's championship.
Kawasaki will face al-Nasr at Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Stadium on the 1st of next month. 메이저놀이터
The objective power is clearly inferior to that of Alnasr. However, Kawasaki lost a lot of ball possession (34 percent to 66 percent) in the match against Al-Sad (7-4) but managed to secure a new victory through more systematic operation. It is a team that possesses typical characteristics of an ambush that takes over a strong team.