That was the tack I took for the day-after/look-ahead story out of the Asian Cup semifinals for The National.

You can see that story here.

The idea being that Japan is as old school as the Asian Football Confederation gets, one of the 12 original members when the AFC was founded in 1954.  And Australia is the newest of the 48 members.

And here they are, in the 2011 Asian Cup finals

I also noted that Australia is stylistically different than other Asian teams. The Aussies, as constituted, are a very big, very physical team. Not technically gifted, not particularly fast, but extremely strong. They just muscle opponents off the ball. And they seem to take up a large physical space on the field.

Their backline, in particular, is like nothing in Asia. Almost impenetrable. Especially their central defenders, Lucas Neill and Sasa Ognenovski, and their goalkeeper, Mark Schwartzer. Neill is a veteran of 15 years in England, Schwartzer is the starting keeper for Fulham in the Premier League and Ognenovski is a monster, about 6-6, 230, but with enough skill and soccer sense to not only frighten opponents in any challenge but to take advantage of that fear. He is particularly useful, too, on corner kicks.

Anyway, Australia in defense is fearsome; it has conceded one goal in five matches here, and conceded one goal in eight matches in the final round of Asia qualifying for the World Cup. (Albeit it to Japan.)

This continent has severe trouble breaking down the Aussies.

Another factor here, in the New vs. Old concept … is how the addition of Australia, in 2006, changed the face of the AFC.

Colleagues who have covered previous Asian Cups were talking about this on a long bus ride the other day … how in the bad old days the Asian Cup was quite the random affair. Press conferences rarely held, big chunks of nations not bothering to make their coaches or players available. They cited the 2000 event in Lebanon as particularly chaotic.

They said that the addition of Australia changed how the AFC operates. The Australian media is big and sophisticated, like First World media is, and they raised a stink about the AFC’s primitive media methods. Now, the AFC runs its tournaments almost exactly as Fifa does,  with “minus-one” media availabilities of both coach and a player, with a mixed zone after the match, and post-match interviews with both coaches. These reporters, anyway, attribute the AFC’s increasing sophistication to Australia joining the party.

If you scroll down to the “acceptance into the AFC” section of the Aussies national team wiki page, you will see this quote from the AFC president, Mohamed bin Hammam:

“As well as being a developed football nation, Australia brings a developed economy, and this is actually what we want in football. Besides Japan, Korea, China and Saudi Arabia, if Australia joins, the benefits are huge. This is what we’re after.”

The AFC is reaping those benefits now. New, higher standards are in place, and a new beast is on the loose among the Asian teams. On Saturday, we see if Japan can rise to the occasion and tame the New Kids on the block.