Silent Lonesome Man

The AFC Champions League and AFC Cup practiced a very absurd system unseen by other confederations across the world. With the exception of CONCACAF and OFC, it is the only confederation to expand clubs to 40 teams in both tier. The last time having such a large amount of teams happened in the UEFA Europa League 2020-21 season, the last season to feature 48 teams before the creation of the UEFA Europa Conference League, the third-tier competition of European football. And yet UEFA only limited this expansion in the Europa League, not the Champions League. However, this system has proven to cost more than won. Instead of providing necessary revenues, the expansion has been done with little perpetration due to the ongoing plague of coronavirus pandemic. China, the most powerful nation in Asia economically, has made it difficult due to the country's strict adherence to zero-COVID, making many of these competitive games to be played with limited spectators. What's more to say is the...

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...

Among supporters of Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 2022, one of the most surprising supporters of Russia, to be frank, are the Africans. Though most supports are founded entirely in West, East and South, rather than in North Africa, but this is a huge disparity considering that North Africa only contributed over 15% of the population of the continent. This shocking high amount of pro-Russian sympathy toward Africa is not entirely unfounded, and so is the pro-Chinese sentiment among Africans. Yet a major distinction is that, African love for Russia and China do not necessary mean they will see them parts of Europe and Asia. In the mind of Africans, mostly the less educated Sub-Saharan ones, Russia and China are like in a different planet than the remaining countries, even if this is compared to Latin America. What has fuelled Africans to become indulged in their own hypocrisies about Russia and China have to be understood from the past of the Africans. From colonial backgrou...

India is one of the very few nations in the democratic camp in the planet to have not denounced Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, in a surprise visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed him, albeit in a cold shoulder. But that still explains why India still views Russia too important. Despite the economic ties between two nations are minimal even compared to the size of India's trade with Japan and South Korea, Russia is the base of many Indian military hardware. Unexpectedly, Indians also have a lot of reason to love Russia - during the Cold War, while India was officially neutral, the country had leaned to Moscow following the 1971 war with Pakistan, an Indian victory. The United States was ill-remembered because of Washington's support for Islamabad, despite American popular rally toward the cause of Bangladesh. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had only emphasised the desperate. Putin and Lavrov have been running o...

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...

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 ...