What was perhaps more of a worry was the sparse crowd. It has been said that Australia doesn’t get the tournament. That may be true but then plenty of others don’t either and these are symptoms of a wider problem.
In Korea, which only really takes an interest in the last eight onwards, Daegu’s triumph was overshadowed by UEFA Champions League action, a trend repeated across Asia.
In a past life, I set up over a dozen football websites in different countries all over the continent and it’s hardly a shocking revelation the AFC Champions League often struggles for exposure. It has been that way ever since the competition started back in 2003.
The debate about how to increase attendances, viewing figures and general profile has been as constant a companion to the tournament as the ‘dramatic’ music that teams walk out to.
I felt sorry for Aussie journalists and broadcasters in the early days who came to East Asia for group games, excited to be a part of it all, only to be surprised and deflated by the apathy found in many quarters.
Australia may not have fallen in love with the competition but there was a time when it was looking for romance, something that can be hard to find on a midweek night -- the tournament would be in a much better shape if games took place at the weekend --in Pohang or Nagoya.
To be fair to the AFC, organising a tournament in the world’s biggest continent is tough. Making it relevant is tougher.
The fundamental issue is that interest in Asian football is far from fundamental in Asia. In media around the continent, if there is not some local connection or player to provide the hook, then there is little straight coverage of the continent's football scene.
The challenge always was turning football fans in Asia into fans of Asian football and it is a challenge that remains.
The criticism levelled at the AFC also remains: that is does not do enough to promote the tournament. There have been plenty of plans but not enough actually done partly because officials just don’t really know what to do.
For years, it was largely a case of hoping that bigger teams qualify and bring bigger crowds. This worked with the rise of Chinese powerhouses such as Guangzhou Evergrande who really took to the competition and saw success in Asia as a vital part of its growth and some of the titans in Iran. These pushed average attendances upwards but the underlying issues persisted.
One of those is money but while making the tournament more financially lucrative would help, it would not change attitudes that much.
An obvious solution is to open it up more. There are countries that are desperate to be more involved. Having four teams from Japan, South Korea, China, UAE etc is not only boring, it can breed complacency. Two from each is ample and makes, or should make, those places more precious. If Japan had two instead of four spots then the sight of Sanfrecce Hiroshima taking a reserve team to Guangzhou Evergrande would have gone down less well back home.
Having new teams and new nations involved not only increases variety, it increases interest. All Malaysian fans tuned in on Tuesday to see Johor Darul Ta’zim, a team that also sees the tournament as a vital part of its growth, become the first to represent the nation, losing just 2-1 to defending champions Kashima Antlers in Japan. There should be a big crowd down in Johor for the first home game in a couple of weeks. More Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai and Indian teams would add colour, fans and viewers.
The AFC has to do more to help and encourage local media to promote the tournament, which suffers from being split into two geographic zones until the final, creating two competitions in which one ignores the other and vice-versa.
I have been to a number of draws in Kuala Lumpur for the group stage over the years and the number of journalists from outside Malaysia is usually similar to the number of goals Daegu scored.
Other initiatives in the past have been discussed: fantasy football, workshops, seminars and the like to find out what works and what does not.
For example, giving media the chance to interview big stars from overseas sounds good but the problem is that some countries and clubs are more helpful than others. Getting people on to the same page is tricky but more can be done to both punish those teams and federations that are less than enthusiastic and reward others. The AFC needs a stick made of carrots.
It’s not all doom and gloom. Standards have improved on and off the pitch and the Champions League can be genuinely thrilling and unpredictable. It needs that story to be told more, seen by more and enjoyed by more all across Asia. Easier said than done.
