Silent Lonesome Man

A few months ago, three months for precise, China hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, under strict lockdown, despite concerns over China's unwavering commitment to zero-COVID. This temporarily eased worries about China's abilities to host a much smaller, yet equally important, Asian Games in late 2022 in the city of Hangzhou. At least. But China brought a shock wave to Asian football when the country officially relinquished its rights to host the 2023 AFC Asian Cup on 14 May, citing COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the nation. This could not come in such a moment like this, given Xi Jinping has continued to commit with zero-COVID strategy and suppressed any dissent at home; thus China has been crippled of a major sporting event, though it was scheduled in summer next year. This has doubled further troubles when the attempted 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou has also been delayed as well - potentially moved to 2023 or could be even cancelled. And that is not impossible. In the...

By the end of summer 2021, already twelve national teams have qualified for the upcoming Asian showpiece so far. With the hosts, China, as an exception, the remaining twelve are Qatar, Syria, Iraq, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Lebanon, Oman, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. These teams are on their last ditch to take spots for the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar as well. For teams that could not make it to the World Cup, the Asian stage in China offers them another opportunities. The Asian Cup qualifiers have also been cut short, instead of a round-robin two legs format, it is now just a single group stage one leg to play for. Of course, this also reduced a great amount of intensity, but that doesn't mean teams are willing to miss the cakes. The qualification stage will be defined in six groups, each comprises four teams. The winners of these groups will progress to the Asian Cup directly, alongside the five best of six runners-up teams as well. Only eleven ...

North Korea was competing for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as well as the 2023 Asian Cup held in neighbouring China when the country surprisingly announced its withdrawal from the qualifications in early May 2021. Prior to North Korea's withdrawal, the country was fourth in the group, but only one point behind Turkmenistan, the group leader, gathering eight, including two important draws to South Korea and Lebanon, and a win against the latter, leave aside its easy win over Sri Lanka. North Korea's withdrawal, as we later know, proved disastrous for Turkmenistan, since they were the only team in the group to beat North Korea prior to the Chollima's disqualification - they lost three points and was no longer able to decide its fate, while South Korea utilised this advantage to crush Turkmenistan 5-0, officially confirmed its qualification for Asian Cup 2023 and the final round of 2022 World Cup. But we won't talk so much about Turkmenistan and South Korea. Instead, we wou...

The drawn has made many ASEAN sides facing their own tasks with a lot of difficulties. However, this is typical since ASEAN zone is mostly regarded as a blackwater for many football pundits, due to its low international recognition in the footballing stage. Excluding Australia, the abnormal member of AFF that has the football capability beyond the reach, I take my personal discussion with the remaining national teams of Southeast Asia in their final pushes to get further attention. The Philippines can make surprises Group A: the Philippines have never been known as a football nation, and we can thank the Americans for that: colonisation, the introduction of English and America-based sports like basketball and boxing meant the country has languished outside the world's football map. From 2010s, the Philippines however started its football revival, which culminated in the country's greatest success up to date: 2019 AFC Asian Cup, which was the first time the Philippines qualified...