DALLAS, July 4 : Asia's flimsy World Cup challenge finally fizzled out in Dallas on Friday with Australia's penalty shootout loss to Egypt extinguishing the confederation's hopes of salvaging anything positive from a dismal campaign.Three wins from the 29 matches played across North America were a meagre return for the nine nations representing a region comprising more than half of the world's population on the sport's greatest stage.Despite sending its largest-ever contingent to the World Cup, no Asian nation qualified for the last 16 for the first time since Brazil in 2014.The failings of the region's leading lights were familiar. Japan and Australia were defeated in the first knockout round, just as the Japanese were in 2018 and 2022 and the Socceroos in Qatar four years ago. Neither na