That’s the view of Melbourne CIty midfielder Rostyn Griffiths, who returned to the A-League this season after playing for Uzbek league side Pakhtakor Tashkent.
His time in the central Asian national gave him a good insight into Uzbek football and he insists the Socceroos will be in for a fight when they take on Uzbeksitan in the Asian Cup round of 16.
Griffiths played alongside a number of the current Uzbek national team who are part of their Asian Cup squad, including defenders Akmal Shorakhmedov, Egor Krimets and Farrukh Sayfiev, and forward Jaloliddin Masharipov.
Uzbekistan might be ranked 95th in the world, and have never beaten Australia in their past three encounters, but the 30-year-old has warned they remain dangerous.
“You definitely can’t underestimate the Uzbeks, they’ve got some talented players and they’re fighters as a nation as well so they’re no easy-beats,” Griffiths told The World Game.
“All they’ve really lacked in the past is some organisation, so with a foreign coach I think that’s the missing piece. The whole nation is on the rise at the moment and the football team is no different, they’re staring to put proper investment in to it and realising what they’re missing.
“Also with a foreign coach the best players are no playing as opposed to before it was all about who knew who.”
Striker Eldor Shomurodov is the star of Uzbek football and has already scored four goals in this Asian Cup, getting on the scoresheet against Oman, Turkmenistan and Japan.
The 23-year-old plays his club football in the Russian Premier League with FC Rostov.
Griffiths believes Shomurodov and 31-year-old skipper Odil Ahmedov, who plys his trade in China with Shanghai SIPG, are the White Wolves’ two biggest threats.
“Eldor is a tidy player, he’s a bit of a pin-up boy for Uzbek football,” he said.
“For me, the captain Akhmedov is the biggest danger, everything comes through him and he’s the real king of Uzbekistan. He stands up in the big games and proved why he’s lasted so long at a big club in China.
“I’ve played with quite a few players in the squad, the best one in Jaloliddin Marsharipov. He’s not starting right now under this coach, but technically he’s probably the best and the quickest player playing in Uzbekistan at the moment.
“I would be targeting Egor Krimets as he’s the slowest of the lot and very prone to a red card. [But] I would still expect the Socceroos to have too much for them.
“Especially with an early goal, I think that would kill them. But if they score first they’ll pull out all the stops of game tactics and make it very frustrating for the Socceroos.”
Uzbekistan broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991 and football is the country’s most popular sport. The nation of around 33 million people is enjoying an economic boom and is rich in gold, uranium, copper, oil and gas.
Griffiths said some of that money is being put into improving football across the former Soviet Republic. In August ex-Inter and Valencia boss Cuper was appointed as head coach.
“They’re really starting to throw money at football in Uzbekistan,” he said.
“There’s some big hitters who’ve now come back to the country and with the foreigners over there having more of a say in what happens as well.
“As an example, the Under-23 team that won the recent AFC U-23 tournament last year, when they got back to Uzbekistan they all got given a brand new car and US $50,000 each. and basically paraded around the city.
“They’ve always produced good players just perhaps lacked direction.”
Griffiths made nine appearances for Pakhhtakor Taskkent after leaving Perth Glory in 2017. The midfielder cut short his stay in Uzbekistan after his wife fell pregnant and joined Melbourne City last July.
Griffiths, who has previously played around the world in China, Holland, Scotland and England, admits life in the Central Asian country was enjoyable but very challenging.
“Initially I loved Tashkent, it was all new and exciting,” he said.
“However it’s so different to what we are used to and there’s almost nothing there that most people would know. For example, no McDonald’s, no Shell or BP, so after a while to do simple things became very hard.
“The language barrier for me is the hardest place I’ve ever been with almost nobody speaking English, so day to day things become overwhelming. Once we found out my wife got pregnant then we knew we couldn’t see out my contract there so decided to explore other options.
“When the doctors there were suggesting we have the baby outside of Uzbekistan then we knew we couldn’t stay.”
