PUNE: When Australia, commonly referred to as Matildas, grabbed attention wowing all with a no mercy 18-0 victory over Indonesia in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 it was the 46th instance of a team finishing with a double-digit scoreline in the championship that is currently witnessing its 20th edition in India 

At the end of the day, the score-line was generalised with ‘one of the biggest ever recorded in international women’s football.’ What took centre stage was the individual record-breaking feat by 5-goal hero and skipper Samanta May Kerr, who became Australia's all-time leading goal-scorer outscoring Socceroos legend Tim Cahill’s previous record of 50 and currently sits pretty with 54 goals.    

But a dig into the Asian Cup finals’ records (excluding the qualifiers) and an amazing sequential unfolds as one fishes out records since its first run back in Hong Kong in 1975.

Australia’s 18-0 feat ranks 5th best and became the 7th country to achieve a double-digit score. For Indonesia, it was the 3rd instance of losing in double digits. The loss was their ‘worst defeat’ have lost to Chinese Taipei 10-0 in 1981 and 11-0 to Japan in 1989. 

The biggest-ever win in the Championship stands in the name of North Korea. In a ‘show no mercy’ encounter back in the 2001 edition, North Korea (related to as Korea DPR) drubbed Singapore 24-0 in a Group-B game on 6 December 2001 in New Taipei City.

Making up the ‘Club-20’ bracket are two 21-0 feats, both Group-A encounters but in different editions. The first cam by China PR against the Philippines at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on 24 September 1995 and then Japan replicated the scoreline against Guam in Guangdong, China on 5 December 1997.

The 4th highest once again had Korea DPR name on it after forcing a 19-0 verdict against Guam in a Group-B encounter in New Taipei City in 2001.

Eight-time champs China PR have been rampant of the lot managing 10+ score-lines on 14 occasions. Japan (13) follows closely, while North Korea (9), Chinese Taipei (4), South Korea (4), India and Australia (1 time each) make up the Elite-7.

However, from the elite list, India (1), Chinese Taipei (3), and South Korea (1) have ended up at the wrong end of these one-sided contests. China PR played villain against all the three teams, while Japan did the same against Chinese Taipei twice.  

In a one-on-one face-off, India leaked a dozen (0-12) to China PR in a Group-C match in 2003 at the Nakhon Sawan Province Stadium, Thailand. 

Chinese Taipei, sadly, has 3 bad memories – v/s China PR (10-0; semi-finals; in 1997) which incidentally is the only instance of any team losing in double digits in a KO round. The next v/s Japan (11-1; Group-A; 2006 at Hindmarsh Stadium, Australia) and once again in the very next edition in 2008 to Japan (11-0; Group B; at Thong Nhat Stadium, Vietnam).

South Korea’s lone dark spot came against China PR (10-0; Group-A; at Fukoka) in 1991

The Asian Cup has witnessed 15 teams get a 10+ goal spanking. Philippines (7 times) leads this segment followed by Malaysia (6), Hong Kong and Guam (5), Singapore (4), Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Chinese Taipei (3 times each), Nepal (2) and South Korea, India, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Myanmar (1 each).

Coincidently, out of 45 group stage matches that ended with lopsided results, Group-B has been the ‘bogey group’ producing 21 such results followed by Group-A (14) and Group-C (10). 

Interestingly, there have been 5 editions of the Championship when double-digit results did not get logged and include Hong Kong 1975; Republic of China 1977; India 1980; China 2010 and Jordan 2018.

(MICKY AIGNER)