A short preview on the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification third round in Asia - Matchday 1

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification has come to the crucial point when these teams have nothing but a must-win goal - qualify for the tournament in Qatar. I'll give this space to make a short preview about the first matchday within the Asian zone (AFC), to see if there are anything to hold for:

Group A

Iran vs Syria

Iran and Syria met at the latest qualifiers back in 2018, when Syria successfully held Iran twice to book a playoff spot, before losing to eventual qualifier Australia. Unfortunately, this encounter would not be as similar as it used to be. Instead, this will be the two teams' first game in the current qualification space. Given the history of the Iran-Syria encounter, the edge belongs to Iran, when they lost only one and winning 16 games, which is a serious problem for the Syrians.

Iran has lost much of its pace and discipline steeled under the former Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, as seen with Iran's struggling second round, losing in shock to Bahrain and Iraq. Iran rallied a good comeback to reclaim the top spot and qualified, but many of Iran's problems are still relevant and can be a headache for the Croatian boss Dragan Skočić, who has little time to implement his possible tactics. It should be taken that Iran qualified to this round after Iraq and Bahrain were both depleted of fan supports - an instrumental weapon behind these teams' wins over Iran, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Syria, on the other hand, is in an even more scarce situation. Having sacked the Tunisian manager Nabil Maâloul because of salary disputes, the team - unlike the previous qualification - has become increasingly disunited and upheaval within the Syrian Football Federation is enormous. Internal infighting has resulted in a hurried assembling of the Syrian team under the new coach, native Nizar Mahrous, who is less popular to the players. In some aspects, had Syria not been drawn with the likes of a declining China and the Philippines that lack interests in football, outside minnows the Maldives and Guam, who could imagine Syria's route be like.

Iran's hope definitely will lie upon Sardar Azmoun, who has been an undisputed element in Russian giant Zenit Saint Petersburg with an average goal of 2.52, though the current season was not Sardar's best in spite of the Russian outfit crowned itself Tsar of the Russian Premier League. Syria's hope will be on the hand of Mahmoud Al-Mawas as he netted four goals in the final fixtures in June as the Syrians consolidated first place in its qualifying group.

South Korea vs Iraq

South Korea last faced Iraq in a major competition was in 2015 when South Korea cruised past Iraq 2-0 in the Asian Cup to reach the final. South Korea has most prevailed against Iraq since the 1990s, even Iraq's victory against South Korea in the 2007 Asian Cup didn't come in 90' or 120' but rather on penalties, effectively making it a draw. Still, Iraq is a very stubborn rival and she promised to be an uneasy test for the Koreans.

The Koreans could not dream of an even more happy beginning when they would stay host in September, and the test against Iraq will decide South Korea's possible place in the 2022 World Cup. South Korea has an acceptable performance in the second round when it won five and drew one after North Korea was expunged from the qualification. Paulo Bento's South Korea is still far from being the best, a bit attributed to the team's somehow flawed tactics in spite of superiority, as demonstrated by South Korea's hard comeback against Lebanon. Bento is conservative in the way he used his players, with himself openly turned away young talents like Lee Kang-in and Jung Sang-bin, and his advocation to an attacking form based on the team's attacking superiority that often led South Korea's back to be somehow exploited. This is not something the Koreans could feel easy with the Portuguese boss.

Iraq, meanwhile, has just changed manager, the Dutchman Dick Advocaat. Advocaat is no stranger to South Korea as he was the Taeguks' coach in the 2006 World Cup, where his team was eliminated in a hurdle to Switzerland. Definitely, Advocaat knew very well about how the South Koreans would play, and he could use Iraq's win against Iran as an inspiration. Iraq, under the Slovenian Katanec, was more conservative and very defence-minded, but this was useful for Advocaat if he continued to keep faith in the current form that was built by the Slovene. Still, despite Iraq's somewhat superior demonstration in the second round when they only lost to Iran in the final game, the way Iraq failed to overcome Bahrain twice served as a reminder about the danger of underestimating its rival when Bahrain successfully blocked Iraq's skilful players. To make it worse, Iraq has lost its two most important goalkeepers, Jalal Hassan and Mohammed Hameed, due to injuries - they are important custodians of Iraq.

South Korea's talisman will be no other than Son Heung-min. The Spurs striker is reaching the prime of his career, he himself already contributed two goals for the London outfit after just three matches. By contrast, Iraq's counterpart will be the young Mohanad Ali, who scored 17 goals for the national team despite the age of 21, widely seen as the future heir to the country's legendary captain Younis Mahmoud.

UAE vs Lebanon

The UAE last met Lebanon officially, in the 2014 qualifiers, where the UAE won 4-2, even though Lebanon, not the Emirates, that progressed to the final round of the qualification. The memory of the 2014 qualifiers could be considered as a dark memory for many Emiratis when the team finished last with the only win coming from its home fixture against Lebanon. Interestingly, Lebanon's first-ever win against the UAE also came in this qualifier, a 3-1 comeback in Beirut, an experience never been repeated since.

The UAE has changed fast from that humiliation. Fast forward ten years and the UAE is led by veteran coach Bert van Marwijk. However, the team's form in the second round was horribly poor, with away losses to Vietnam and Thailand. Luckily, using home advantages, the UAE staged a successful comeback to seal itself. But like Iran, the UAE has revealed too many weaknesses and this is something the UAE has to deal with in order to strike a World Cup return after its 1990 experience. The Dutchman found it difficult, still, when in his group composed Iran, Iraq and South Korea; the middle is led also by a Dutchman. Therefore, van Marwijk required long-running perpetration for good, including naturalising Brazilian and Argentine players.

Lebanon, on one hand, is far worse than the UAE: they were the last to reach this stage, with luck blessings, however: Lebanon struggled against the likes of North Korea before its withdrawal, then Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan. The only credit Lebanon got was a home draw to South Korea. The luck that followed Lebanon could be said from Japan and Saudi Arabia, these nations helped to trash Tajikistan and Uzbekistan out of the run. With a new coach, the Czech Ivan Hašek, he would have a hard time dealing with the very disorganised Lebanese team due to poor perpetration at home amidst the economic and political crisis erupting in the country.

The UAE's leading player is no other than Ali Mabkhout, the leading goalscorer of the UAE when he has already scored 76 goals after 92 appearances. Interestingly, Lebanon's captain is also the UAE's equal counterpart by country, Hassan Maatouk, who has scored 21 goals after 93 appearances. With two teams' biggest hopes are also the top scorers of each nation, one may conclude about the effectiveness of attackers will decide the outcome of the game.

Group B

Australia vs China

Australia will meet China for the first time since the 2015 Asian Cup that was won by Australia 2-0. Ironically, they're the only two teams in group B that have failed to secure bubble travel, costing both nations from hosting home games in September. And both have chosen the Qatari capital Doha as their "home" bases.

Australian aim for Qatar was hurt following the government's refusal to relax the COVID-19 restriction. It has been met with widespread disdain from the football officials of the Oz, many accused the government of abandoning the team. Graham Arnold, in an interview, stated his clear resentment toward Canberra as a "bunch of myopic people". Currently, Australia has assembled enough players abroad, though their fame was no match to the predecessors as they only played in medium-high leagues of Europe like Serbia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Turkey, Scotland and Greece, as well as second-tier leagues' teams of Europe's big five; only one is playing in Australia's expanding A-League. The Australian squad is still somehow formidable at least, but the lack of big names of the predecessors made the Socceroos highly questionable, even though they did play well in the second round, beating Kuwait and Jordan both twice - which are traditionally Australia's kryptonite. Facing China, however, will be a different matter Australia has to take it seriously, given the losses of some of Socceroos' important home-based players due to quarantine disputes.

China is not even in a better situation than Australia. The team could only qualify as the best second-placed team, though China's 3-1 win over Syria came after it was clear that Syria's no.1 finish in the group was undisputed. This, in turn, puts to question China's grand ambition for the World Cup. Unlike Australia, China has shown the desire to win the World Cup with a large chunk of money on her bags, but large investment has not seen the needed outcome. Currently, China has reinforced the team with a number of English and Brazilian naturalised players and this has increased China's strength in response - which may understand Arnold's disdain. The team is, still, composed of mostly Chinese Super League players, with only one is playing abroad for Spanish outfit Espanyol. And naturalised players do not, sometimes, bring out the wanted results, witnessed by China's inability to gain three points in Bacolod. Still, China is quite formidable in terms of preparing for the team, and China's manager, the former youth coach Li Tie, didn't hide his ambition of gaining three points from Australia.

Stoke City's Harry Souttar is the newest discovery of Australia, having never set foot in the country, the Scottish-born defender nonetheless has a very physical appearance, with a height of over 2 meters; with the height alone, Souttar scored six goals in the second round, an impressive result for a defender. Espanyol's Wu Lei is China's equivalent, somehow superior counterpart to Harry Souttar, with a point average of 2.38 throughout every season he represented the Barcelona-based club, though he had yet to perform at full speed this season.

Japan vs Oman

Japan had already dealt with Oman in the 2019 Asian Cup, where Japan won 1-0. History has also sided with the Japanese when they played 12 matches without losing one: 3 draws and 9 wins. Oman will definitely have a nightmarish journey to the land of the Rising Sun, as the Omanis have not even scored a goal on Japanese soil since the 1-1 draw during the 1998 World Cup qualifiers.

The perpetuation of Japan could be considered perfect in any position. The second round alone saw Japan cruised past with eight wins all. Having no internal problem, Japan even got the blessings to play at home, of course, by following the quarantine restriction laws. Currently, Hajime Moriyasu's Japan is a combination of experience and young blood, where they formed a perfect harmony. The likes of Tomiyasu, Minamino, Yoshida, Osako, Kawashima, Gonda, etc. illustrated the picture of Japan, ensuring that Japan's main goal will always be progressing to the FIFA World Cup.

By contrast, Oman has a quite successful training session in Serbia, where the team beat four Serbian clubs in the country's SuperLiga and a Qatari club. Still, compared to Japan's win against Serbia in June earlier, these wins meant nothing for Oman to compare over as Serbia has World Cup experience while clubs that Oman played against are not so big names in Serbian football. Croatian manager Branko Ivanković has been trying to build a team based on the young, energetic blood as the way to prepare for Oman's future, and the second round's results appeared acceptable, albeit Oman won against India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh - where football isn't the most popular sport.

Takumi Minamino will be the most focused player of Japan. The Liverpool man has not been used by Jürgen Klopp this season, but he is still a capable player, having scored for Liverpool in the club's 7-0 win over Crystal Palace previously to become the first Japanese player to score for Liverpool. Meanwhile, Oman's ageless captain Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali will be the torch on Oman's route to the country's first World Cup, as he has already capped 85 times for his country, with 30 goals followed.

Saudi Arabia vs Vietnam

The only two times that two nations faced each other dated back 20 years ago, in the 2002 World Cup qualification, where Saudi Arabia proved its class as a major Asian power, a 9-0 win on aggregate both in Jeddah. Since then, Saudi Arabia still maintains itself as a major Asian football power, albeit in the transition era; while Vietnam has shown a great jump since 2018 and has now become the second Southeast Asian nation to reach this stage.

Saudi Arabia's coach is a well-profiled man, Hervé Renard, who won two African titles with two different national teams and guided Morocco in the 2018 World Cup. Less known for many, Renard himself used to work in Vietnam for only three months, so his knowledge of Vietnamese football exists, though not so much. Saudi Arabia's second-round results were nearly perfect, with six wins and two draws to dominate the group. Only these results showed why Saudi Arabia is a major football power in Asia, even though only a few players have ever gone abroad; not a secret that Saudi Arabia aimed for another World Cup appearance following its return after 12-year hiatus.

Vietnam's perpetration was more turbulent as the team suffered losses of key defenders and has to revamp the team tactics. To make it worse, the country's national league's season was already cancelled due to the disastrous effect of the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, forcing these players to take part without any further games to take experiences. Hence, no secret that accusations of widespread corruption within the Vietnamese Football Federation have returned. Coach Park Hang-seo, still, is a celebrated person for turning an already demoralised Vietnamese team back in 2017 to now a well-organised squad, and the Korean tactician that used to work with the team back in USA 1994 and South Korea-Japan 2002 knows well how to build a team from ruins.

On the Saudi side, Salman Al-Faraj will be the Green Falcons' leading player, as captain of the Saudis, Al-Faraj has the energy and skill to manipulate the ball, best seen by how he managed 20 assists in the Pro League, though he had been somewhat yet to explode in the current season due to wrapping with a light injury. For Vietnam, hope lies upon Nguyễn Quang Hải, the manipulative talisman whose skills have gained continental recognition and has six goals scored for Vietnam, the most important ones that deliver Vietnam the necessary wins.