Conspiracy Sports - The Economics of Football part II

Last July I wrote a post entitled Conspiracy Sports - The Economics of Football (here) pointing out the fact that through-out history, victories have been attained by those who had just overcome adversity.

I will not repeat it, if anyone wants to read it, the link is mentioned above.

The thing is; I was going over this "Conspiracy Theory" with a colleague and they gave me their 2 Cents which I appreciated; maybe at times of adversity, said teams are more motivated to attain victory for their respective countries, and hence perform spectacularly in order to achieve victory.

The current sport in question is the Asia Football Confederation Cup, contested in Qatar, and the finals are to be between Japan, the Samurai's, and Australia, the Kangaroo's.

Personally, I'm hoping the Samurai's grill up some Kangaroo's, and that Saki triumphs over Fosters. Not for any particular reason other than the fact that I love the Japanese warrior sounding names, and feel they are a great team, and that Kawashima is a great goal-keeper, who has been doing his homework since their loss to Paraguay in the Round of 16 penalties.

BUT, BUT, BUT...

If my conspiracy theory is to hold true and prove correct, this is the pivotal make-or-break junction to it, Australia MUST win the match, given the recent tragedies that have occured with the floods.

So, now we watch, and wonder.

What will happen?

Statistics:
Japan has previously won the Cup on 3 occasions (1992, 2000, 2004), making them one of the Top 3 to achieve this (the other two are Saudi Arabia and Iran).

Australia has NEVER won the cup before, never even reaching the finals before, or even the semi's.