The 2006 AFC Women's Asian Cup was a women's football tournament for women's national teams from countries affiliated to the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

. It was the 15th installment of the

AFC Women's Asian Cup The AFC Women's Asian Cup (formerly known as the AFC Women's Championship) is a quadrennial competition in women's football for national teams which belong to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is the oldest women's international football ...

. Unlike the previous tournament which was held every two years, the tournament was moved back a year to 2006. The structure of the competition changed for this tournament, with a qualifying tournament and a separate championship tournament. The four qualifiers of the sub-tournament (

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

) went on to compete for the Championship proper against the four automatic finalists (

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

were added to the final tournament following their switch from

Oceania Football Confederation The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with FIFA. It ...

to the Asian confederation. The finals of the tournament were held in

in July 2006 - the hosting rights were originally given to

, but after Australia moved conferences, they were given the hosting rights. All matches in the main tournament were held in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. The tournament also acted as Asia's qualifying tournament for the

2007 Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but t ...

. Two spots were available in addition to the automatic spot given to China as World Cup hosts. China won the tournament, beating hosts Australia in the final. Thus, Australia took the first qualifying spot, while North Korea defeated Japan in the third place play-off to take second place. Despite beating China in the group stages, Japan then played off with the third-placed team in the

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

region,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, who they beat over two legs to qualify for the tournament.

Qualification

Teams

Japan, China, North Korea and South Korea qualified by virtue of occupying the four top spots in the

2003 AFC Women's Championship The 2003 AFC Women's Championship was a women's football tournament held in Thailand from 8 to 21 June 2003. It was the 14th holding of the AFC Women's Championship, a tournament for women's national teams from countries affiliated to the Asian F ...

. * * * * * * * * *

Venues

The tournament was held in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, with

Hindmarsh Stadium Hindmarsh Stadium (currently known as Coopers Stadium due to sponsorship from Adelaide-based company Coopers Brewery) is a multi-purpose stadium in Hindmarsh, an inner western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is the home of the Austral ...

being the main venue, hosting all matches except for one of the two concurrent last matches in each of the two groups, which were held at

Marden Sports Complex Marden Sports Complex is a multi-use stadium in Marden, South Australia. It is mainly used for soccer and is the home ground for National Premier League side Adelaide Blue Eagles. It was also used for the 2004 OFC Nations Cup and the 2006 AFC ...

Group stage

All matches in the group stage were held at

, except the Chinese Taipei v Vietnam and Thailand v Australia matches, which took place at

Group A

---- ----

Group B

---- ---- ---- ----

Knockout stages

Semi-finals

Winners qualify for the

. In the China v North Korea match, China conceded a potential equaliser in injury time, but it was disallowed for offside. The North Koreans reacted by throwing bottles and other objects at the referees, and North Korean goalkeeper Han Hye-yong kicked Italian referee

Anna De Toni Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 1221) ...

from behind. Three North Korean players, including Han, were suspended before the third place play-off. North Korea protested the decision, demanding a rematch and a reversal of the suspensions.N. Korea demands rematch at Asian Cup
AP, retrieved 30 July 2006

Third place match

As China were automatically qualified as hosts, North Korea qualified for the World Cup as the third-placed team in the tournament. Japan will play off with the third-placed team from the 2006 Women's Gold Cup in the

region.

Final

Awards

Goalscorers

Tournament teams ranking

References

External links

Official site from
AFC
WomenSoccer.com report

ThaiFootball.com story

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asian Cup

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Women's Championship The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

Afc

AFC 2006–07 in Australian women's soccer 2006 in Japanese women's football 2006 in Chinese football 2006 in North Korean football 2006 in South Korean football 2006 in Burmese football 2006 in Thai football 2006 in Vietnamese football 2006 in Taiwanese football July 2006 sports events in Asia