Silent Lonesome Man

Already we have seen how the situation played out, already two teams have booked places in Qatar, and there shall be a potential third, fourth and maybe a fifth to qualify. Group A Lebanon vs Syria Lebanon 's 1-1 draw to Iraq in Sidon had effectively crippled the Lebanese from dreaming further for the World Cup, as their distance with the UAE is now just a win. However, Lebanon can still think about it, in case the Lebanese can ever obtain wins in the next two games while the UAE fail against Iraq and South Korea. This is possible for the first task, as the upcoming opponent for Lebanon is Syria , a team that has been, alongside Iraq, winless after eight games. This is the chance for Lebanon to gain their first-ever home win, already been beaten painfully by Iran, South Korea, the UAE before only won a point after facing Iraq. While the H2H is not totally favourable, with just five wins out of 24 meetings, the Lebanese have been undefeated against Syria since 2013 (3W, 1D). With Vi...

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 ...

A year after the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia, the main character there, World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) officially issued that Russia will not be eligible to play in the 2022 FIFA World Cup because of violation in doping regulation laws. This ban also extended to even the Russian Olympic Committee, meaning that Russia could not take part unless being designated as a neutral athlete organisation under Russian authorities and WADA. One goal for the WADA to do so is to completely dissuade Russia from joining the World Cup, at least if this is necessary to provide a clean space for sports. Hence, if Russia qualifies, they will just play as neutral team of the Russian Football Union sent to Qatar, at least. This should have a demoralising impact on Russia when they can't compete as an official nation. Overall, who else wants to watch their beloved national football team to play without a national flag and an anthem? However, after the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying phase, th...

When you see the end of 2021 in every WCQs, there is a shocking pattern throughout November that has now caused a massive number of unwanted outcomes, some has become unchangeable. We will look back on these nations to see how had they gone wrong so bad - and how can it be fixed. Costa Rica Perhaps 2014 WC quarter-finalists is facing a serious backlash in the qualifying campaign, as the Costa Ricans have won just one, lost three and drew three others. While the Final Round of CONCACAF campaign remains open for the Costa Ricans, their miserable record right now is doing more harm than good for Costa Rica - though it may have been at least calm when Costa Rica beat Honduras 2-1 to end 2021 with somewhat hopes. It is worth noticing about some records here: Costa Rica has missed out chances to win against fairly weaker or unstable opponents like Panama (0-0 away), Jamaica (1-1 home) and Honduras (0-0 away), before the devastating 0-1 defeat away to Canada put Costa Rica in a serious crisis...