“A historic Asian rule.” Whoever starts scoring in the final wins the cup!

Amr Obaid (Cairo)
The Asian Cup maintained the “historical rule” that says that whoever scores first in the final match always wins the title, as the Asian Cup did not know the “Remontada” in the final at all, and despite the Jordanian team achieving a draw against its Qatari brother in the middle of the second half, Only 6 minutes were enough for Al-Anabi to regain its lead again before matters were settled in the last moments with the third goal. Thus, the “rule” continued unchanged for more than half a century, since the Asian Cup introduced the system of elimination rounds and final matches in 1972.
The scene has been repeated in a similar way 5 times so far in the history of the final matches in the Continental Cup, as the beginning was in the 1972 edition as well, when the Iranian national team advanced with a goal over South Korea at the beginning of the second half, but the “Tigers” achieved a draw near the middle of this half, and despite the match turning. It went to extra time, but Iran returned to the lead again and captured the cup with its second goal in the 108th minute, which is what the Australian team did in 2015 when it advanced 1-0 against South Korea, which tied in the final moments of regular time, but the “Kangaroo” maintained the advantage. “Asian Traditions” returned to the lead with a goal in the 105th minute of extra time and won the cup.
It seems that the result (3-1) has become the preferred one in this context, as Japan started it in 2004, when it took an early goal in the first half of the final against China, but the “Dragon” tied after only 9 minutes, before the “Samurai” regained the initiative. With a second goal near the middle of the second half and increased with a third in the final minutes, specifically “90+1”, in a repeating scene of what happened in the last final between Qatar and Jordan, and between them, “Al-Anabi” was on a similar date in the previous tournament, except that it first advanced by two goals at the expense of “The Samurai”, who barely succeeded in reducing the score to 1-2 in the 69th minute, before Akram Afif scored the decisive third goal from a penalty kick in the 83rd minute.
It is true that 7 final matches in the Asian Cup ended with the champion winning without conceding goals, but they follow almost the same rule, as the seven champions advanced and won the cup without harassment from the runner-up, and Iran was content in 1976 with a single goal against Kuwait, which is what the Japanese national team did 3 Times in 1992, 2000 and 2011, twice against Saudi Arabia and the last against Australia, respectively, as well as what Iraq did in 2007 against Saudi Arabia, which advanced first at the expense of China in 1984 and increased the score to 2-0, and before that Kuwait began registering in the 1980 edition. Before the score rose to 3-0.
The funny thing is that the Saudi national team won the 1988 and 1996 titles in an almost similar way, despite the two matches ending in a goalless draw and resorting to penalty kicks, because the “Green” team was ahead every time in the penalty shootout, as they started with a 1-0 advantage after South Korea missed the first kick, and despite missing the penalty kick. Saudi Arabia took the second kick, but it was the winner in the end, and the “Green” was also ahead in kicks against the Emirati “Al-Abyad” in 1996, 2-1, and was able to snatch the title in the end despite missing the third kick.