When you live in the U.S., you might not think of this often, when you are pondering international soccer.

But we do around here:

West Asia vs. East Asia.

To Europeans or Americans, all of Asia is “east,” right?

But not when you live here. We have West Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. But of course. When you live in a region, you need more specific terms than just “Asia.” That’s one big land mass, and people and cultures are significantly varied across the length of it, from Turkey to Japan.

And it comes up when discussing soccer over here. In these terms: How East Asia pretty much owns West Asia in soccer, at the moment.

We commissioned a lengthy and erudite piece on this to run in The National last week. In it, the author John Duerden notes that club teams from Japan or South Korea have won five consecutive Asian Champions League titles — even though half the field comes from West Asia, generally considered to be anything west of, say, India. That is, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, all the countries on the Arabian Peninsula, Lebanon, Uzbekistan … but not Israel and not Turkey, who are European, for purposes of world football.

The story also points out that East Asian teams took all four of the continent’s berths in the 2010 World Cup — the two Koreas, Japan and Australia (which is Asian for purposes of Fifa confederations). West Asia was unrepresented for the first time since 1974. No Iran, no Saudi Arabia, no UAE, no Iraq, no Kuwait.

The East vs. West thing was played out in stark terms here in Abu Dhabi tonight when the champion of the domestic league, Al Wahda, played the Asian Champions League titlist, Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, of South Korea …. and the Koreans just drilled our local guys, 4-1. It was no fluke. They could play 10 times and Al Wahda might win one. Might.

The simple explanations offered in the piece we ran (link, above) seemed to focus on player development, and how it is more rigorously applied in the East … the West’s fascination with big names who might make a team more interesting (hello, Fabio Cannavaro) rather than lead to collective improvement, and the East’s willingness to allow its best players to go to the world’s biggest teams, where they get even better and open up spaces for rising youngsters on the domestic clubs.

And at least one guy, an Iranian player, suggests it’s just a cycle and it could change at any moment.

We may have another test soon to see how the halves compare. The Asian Cup is coming up next month in Qatar, with 16 nations in it. If the final four come from throughout the region, well, maybe some of those other stats aren’t meaningful. But if we get to the end and the final four are the Koreas and Japan and Australia …

West vs. East. Has different connotations over here. I’m still a Westerner, at least in Asia.