Silent Lonesome Man

This is the word I may hear from some Argentine and Brazilian fans after the fixture between them in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers was halted. Well, we all know how: Brazilian police stormed the stadium, arresting Giovani Lo Celso, Emiliano Martínez, Emiliano Buendia and Cristian Romero after English football clubs filed a complaint about these players illegally left the clubs' base camps. Yet Brazil and Argentina aren't the only ones who lost their best players because of the English. Colombia is suffering a denting hardship in the qualification because of the absence of their England-based players. Uruguay failed to produce the promised form in the qualification. The United States is struggling in the final round when the Americans suffered a blowing home draw to Canada - which are not even interested in the sport more than Americans. Luckier, but little changing, Croatia's England-based players Mateo Kovačić and Nikola Vlašić were the only few available options even thou...

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...