The Rational Ref | Mixed fortunes for hosts of regional showpieces

This year's Asian Cup and the African Cup of Nations had strong narratives, and plenty of drama and contrasts.

Hosts Australia and Equatorial Guinea lit up their tournaments in unexpected ways. Who would have predicted that the Asian Cup would have been an overwhelming success Down Under?

Before the tournament, none of the 16 Asian teams were in the top 50 of the Fifa world rankings and the four Asian teams at the World Cup - Australia, Japan, South Korea and Iran - were woeful.

But the dazzling matches, plethora of goals and huge crowds brought smiles and sunshine to Australia's summer festival of soccer.

The 32-game tournament saw an aggregate attendance of about 650,000 or more than 20,000 spectators per match. Compare that to the 2011 Asian Cup hosted by Qatar, which averaged just over 1,000 fans per game, leading to obvious questions about the logic in rejecting Australia's bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup in favour of Qatar.

The Asian Cup had many flavours and styles of soccer on display, with the two best teams, South Korea and Australia, meeting in the final and sparring skilfully until the last seconds of extra time.

Iran and Iraq was another exciting clash, which also went into extra time with a sending off for Iran's Mehrdad Pooladi for pretending Iraq's goalkeeper had headbutted him.

Referees were told to clamp down on players for simulation, time wasting and dissent, so Iran had nothing to complain about. But complain they did, saying Iraq had fielded an ineligible player. The AFC dismissed Iran's complaint.