DPA/Sydney

 
With the Asian Cup group stage approaching a conclusion, the race to be the tournament’s top-scorer is heating up even if the individuals involved are careful to stress that team glory comes first.
The tournament made an explosive start in terms of goals as Australia thrashed Kuwait 4-1 in the opening fixture but the next three matches produced only one goal apiece.
However, any concerns that a low-scoring tournament was on the cards were soon crushed with excellent displays of attacking and, on occasion, defending which is not quite at the expected level.
The current competition top-scorer is Jordan’s Hamza Al Dardour, who claimed the first hat-trick in Australia as he bagged all four of his goals to date against Palestine.
“I can’t describe the feeling,” Al Dardour said. “Of course, every player hopes to score four goals, but I didn’t expect to do that at all. I had a challenge with my team to score two goals, but instead, I doubled that and got four!”
Al Dardour’s bid for the golden boot was certainly helped by facing Palestine, by far the weakest team involved. But you can only play the opposition in front of you and in addition to two tap-ins, he scored two superb finishes.
Iran have scored just three goals in two games en route to claiming six points, but 20-year-old Sardar Azmoun’s winner against Qatar has arguably been the pick of the tournament so far.
Azmoun was found by a cross at the edge of the box but in one movement killed the ball with a great touch and spun 180 degrees to make space for his clinical finish.
“It was a brilliant goal,” Iran coach Carlos Queiroz said. “It was a special movement of the centre-forward, a great turn at the level of some of the best centre-forwards I have worked with in my life, such as Ruud van Nistelrooy.”
But the talented Azmoun has only that goal to his name. Ali Mabkhout of the United Arab Emirates is the closest pursuer to Al Dardour, on three.
“Ali Mabkhout has been with the national team for a long time now and gained a lot of experience thanks to playing in London Olympics and at the FIFA under-20 World Cup in 2009,” said his coach, Mahdi Ali. “That experience is now starting to show. He’s scoring many goals as he has been working very hard.”
Mabkhout hit a brace in the UAE’s 4-1 romp over Qatar and his third strike, against Bahrain, has secured one piece of history by being the fastest ever scored at an Asian Cup finals.
The forward would have been level with Al Dardour if a later shot had not been cleared off the line, but he does retain two advantages over the Jordanian in the race for the golden boot.
First, UAE have already secured qualification to the quarter-finals, while Jordan’s hopes are hanging by a threat.
And second, Mabkhout is supplied by the magnificent Omar Abdulrahman, who already has multiple assists to his name.
Abdulrahman has been a constant provider of flicks, tricks and defence-splitting passes, and, though yet to find the scoresheet himself, is sure to be attracting the attention of European scouts.
Scoring goals, after all, is not everything.