With Group A throwing together possibly the most evenly-matched teams in the Asian Cup, staking your reputation on who will progress, and how far, is not for the faint-hearted.

China, Kuwait, Qatar and Uzbekistan could hardly be described as regional football heavyweights but that hasn't diminished the intrigue of this group.

Indeed, the first two fixtures served up a feast of drama, tears, a send-off and the nobbling of the tournament's dark horse by some questionable refereeing.

First blood went to China (2-0 victory over Kuwait) and Uzbekistan (2-0 win over Qatar) but expect some more twists and turns as this one teases itself out.

What makes this group worthy of riding the red-eye is the presence of host nation Qatar who are in danger of becoming a bit player in their own production.

Regular whipping boys for the Socceroos during the last World Cup qualifiers Qatar, as we now know, proved a much more formidable adversary off the park, easily beating Australia to hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup.

Still basking in that success, and after a spectacular opening ceremony to kick off the 2011 Asian Cup, Qatar contrived to rain on their own parade with a lacklustre performance against Uzbekistan in the tournament curtain raiser.

Not even the silky skills of midfielder Sebastian Soria, a bagful of naturalized talent and a near capacity parochial crowd could stop Qatar being mauled by the White Wolves.

Qatar's coach, Bruno Metsu (whose hair continues to defy modern science) has since suggested the team succumbed to the pressure of the opening match. Whatever the reason, watching how or if the Maroons can extricate themselves from this mess to move through to the knockout phase should be worth the sleep deprivation alone.

With Qatar keen to demonstrate their legitimacy on football's world stage amid claims 2022 should be renamed FIFA's Folly it might be a case of a point (or three) earned is a point proved.

Should Qatar fail to progress, however, boosting crowd interest in the remaining fixtures will be a major hurdle for the host nation with some matches already blighted by near empty stadia.

How these problems are negotiated will be instructive for Australia as they take on the challenge of hosting the Asian Cup in 2015.

Meanwhile, Aussie ref Ben Williams would do well to abandon any plans of holidaying along the Persian Gulf on the way home after several of his decisions helped China to an upset win.

The highly fancied Kuwait team must have stumbled upon a whole nest of black cats on the way to Al Gharafa Stadium where they fell to a robust but less than impressive China.

The Kuwaitis are still steaming after having what seemed a genuine goal disallowed and a clear penalty waved away by the Aussie whistle-blower. But Musaed Neda can have no one to blame but himself for a red card in the 35th minute when he sent a boot up the Yangtze of China striker Yang Xu earning himself a two-match ban.

That could be the end of the tournament for the defender, who departed the scene of the crime in tears, unless Kuwait can fashion some points out of its remaining group games.

All of which sets up some intriguing match-ups over the coming days. Kuwait will have to employ all of their guile to overcome the Uzbeks who will, themselves, be hoping to put to death the ghosts of tournaments past.

China go into their next game against Metsu's Men on a high after collecting some impressive scalps in recent times including Japan and Korea as well as a narrow loss to Portugal. But few teams in the tournament have as much riding on the result as Qatar who will be hoping opening day nerves don't develop into something more terminal.