The Asian Cup gets very little attention outside this continent.

This is the local equivalent of the European Championships, a closely followed quadrennial, but isn’t remotely the global event the Euros are.

Nor is it as big a deal as the African Cup of Nations or the Copa America, South America’s national tournament.

But it’s the biggest event in Asia (and it is bigger than North America’s after-thought Gold Cup), and the most realistic major trophy one of the region nation’s can aspire to.

So, it is closely followed here … and this week they placed into four groups the 16 teams who will contest the Asian Cup in Australia come January.

And the UAE, which at the moment has perhaps its strongest team in a quarter century (and maybe the strongest in the country’s history) … has been placed in a less-than-scary group.

If  the Asian Cup jogs any non-local memories, at all, it probably is in regards to the 2007 edition of the event, when war-torn Iraq won an improbable championship with a team featuring Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. It was one of the most remarkable sports stories of the year.

Normally, though, it’s the usual suspects from the west of the continent (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, the UAE) playing the regulars from east Asia (Japan, South Korea, China, Australia).

Japan and Saudi are the big kids, though more Japan than Saudi, of late.

The UAE has never won the competition, and in Qatar in 2011 did not score a goal in three games, losing two of them and finishing last in their group.

This time, however …

The national team has not lost a match since September of 2012. Really. Unbeaten in 20 matches, including some decent sides like New Zealand, Trinidad & Tobago and Uzbekistan.

In the Gulf Cup, last year, the UAE handled Qatar 3-1 and didn’t have much trouble with Bahrain, the hosts, either … winning 2-1.

The UAE team is just very cohesive because it’s pretty much the same guys who came up through the youth ranks together, and because their coach, Mahdi Ali, is very clever and very thorough.

Despite the usual protestations from UAE officials of how difficult it will be … anyone paying attention to Asian football fully expects the UAE to defeat Qatar and Bahrain in Australia.

The UAE-Iran game likely will decide who finishes first and second in the group (and both advance to the quarterfinals). Iran is a serious team, drawn from a population about 75 times as big as the UAE’s national citizenry.

However, the UAE would have a far tougher time were it placed with Japan or South Korea, or even Australia, the hosts.

With the UAE not going to the World Cup (Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia are), the UAE Football Association will zero in on the Asian Cup, and anything Mahdi Ali wants, in terms of camps or weeks and weeks of training … he will get it.

His goal, he said, is the semifinals, but this team could do better than that. Perhaps it could win this event for the first time, and touch off the biggest football celebration in the nation’s history.

Now  celebrations.