Silent Lonesome Man

Four goals. It was the last thing we saw from Vietnam as the game in Melbourne went off. Australia was not at the best of their organisation, due to its manager Graham Arnold was hit with COVID-19, and several key players could not board fly on time due to blizzard, for instance Aziz Behich, who was stuck in Giresun and could not return from his ancestral country Turkey to Australia. Without the full 100% strength and poor perpetration of the Socceroos, yet it was so devastating, Australia demolished Vietnam 4-0. This result was so hard to swallow. Even though everyone generally agreed that Australia would beat Vietnam due to the disparity of the strength, that result was so unbelievable since Australia was at the poorest situation. But what made it so painful to see was, the loss confirmed Vietnam the first team to be eliminated from the FIFA World Cup qualification in the Asian third round. The only thing Vietnamese could feel happy, well, would be the WCQ served as a perpetration fo

The February stage of the qualification in Asia has already witnessed teams that qualified, and teams that won't. How would it play out, though, is still on the hand. Group A Iran vs United Arab Emirates The 1-0 win in Tehran over arch-rival Iraq means Iran has officially become the first team in Asia to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, a complete turn around from the earlier troubles of the second round. Such remarkable turn around ensures Iran as the most powerful national team in Asia and a signal for any opponent to not underestimate the Iranian resolute. This is best seen with Iran's ability to deliver goals in necessary moments, as well as having an extremely capable defence since the arrival of Croatian  Dragan Skočić, conceding just three goals in process. Although Iran's World Cup record is anything but rosy, having never progressed beyond the group stage, the Iranians would try to obliterate its opponents to celebrate the revival of its fortune. This makes the

Australia. A European entity that is on the Asian football family. It sounds strange but it is. When joining the AFC in 2006, the country has just begun to learn to build a concrete football culture, something it lacked entirely. And now, when its football is just enjoying decent growth, it is facing an uphill task of winning all remaining four games, in order to survive. But while Australia's task is really difficult, Vietnam is even in a greater issue: to win at least the first points ever in the qualification. Being the least experienced in this round alone sucks, but, pointless after six games is hardly acceptable. Now, beating Australia is the only way to keep Vietnam on track, which, in reality, more like a fiction than reality. Even a crisis-hit Chinese side still obtained three points from Vietnam, then leave alone how could Vietnam ever win a game. It's so questionable. This dark reality is also intermingled with another issue related to the upcoming trip: a hostile di

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, FIFA had made a radical change, allowing nations to schedule games in January and February 2022, and this could be very necessary to speed up the upcoming World Cup qualification. Asia, in particular, has some benefits from such a schedule, but, how far will it go? Let's move by groups. Group A Iran vs Iraq Iran 's surprising resurgence in the third round, which Iran u-turned its second round misery, has really put the Group A into a closer conclusion that Iran will be able to achieve a place in Qatar. Although scepticism remains high throughout Iran's real quality when it comes to the World Cup, having never survived the group stage before, but right now, Iranians could focus to an early celebration. Contrast to Iran, its neighbouring rival Iraq has been unable to demonstrate the same form it used to be in the second round, being winless after six matches, including two heavy defeats to powerhouses Iran and South Korea earlier (both 0-3). To