2006_AFC_Women's_Championship
2006 AFC Women's Asian Cup
International football competition
The 2006 AFC Women's Asian Cup was a women's football tournament for women's national teams from countries affiliated to the Asian Football Confederation. It was the 15th installment of the AFC Women's Asian Cup.
Unlike the previous tournament which was held every two years, the tournament was moved back a year to 2006. The structure of the competition changed for this tournament, with a qualifying tournament and a separate championship tournament.
The four qualifiers of the sub-tournament (Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Myanmar, Thailand) went on to compete for the Championship proper against the four automatic finalists (China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea). Australia were added to the final tournament following their switch from Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian confederation. The finals of the tournament were held in Australia in July 2006 - the hosting rights were originally given to Japan, but after Australia moved conferences, they were given the hosting rights. All matches in the main tournament were held in Adelaide.
The tournament also acted as Asia's qualifying tournament for the 2007 Women's World Cup. Two spots were available in addition to the automatic spot given to China as World Cup hosts. China won the tournament, beating hosts Australia in the final. Thus, Australia took the first qualifying spot, while North Korea defeated Japan in the third place play-off to take second place. Despite beating China in the group stages, Japan then played off with the third-placed team in the CONCACAF region, Mexico, who they beat over two legs to qualify for the tournament.
