Silent Lonesome Man

When Cambodia was announced as host of the 2023 Southeast Asian Games (potentially moved to 2025 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the first thing Cambodia wanted to do was to build a massive stadium that must rival some of the world's finest. It is not a secret that the Cambodian government announced that the new stadium, replacing the outdated Phnom Penh Olympics Stadium, have to reflect the prideful past. In the end, a Chinese firm won and built the stadium. With 75,000 capacity, it has already become the largest stadium in mainland Southeast Asia, surpassing even Thailand's Rajamangala that holds only 50,000. For relatively 15 million people with a quite low-income economy, the building of this stadium was enormous both by cost and by personnel. More than 500 people were involved in the projects, with the Chinese nearly 350; while thousands of workers worked days and nights; the Chinese designation was to be an expression of long, ancient Sino-Cambodian relations. An even smal...

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...

  The alliance between Russia and China has emerged radically since the end of the Cold War. China, now a wealthier, more powerful and economically more prosperous, allying with slowly diversifying and less reliant on Western investors Russia, partly contributed by the increasing antipathy against the West in both nations. The two big nations are cooperating on many fronts, and China is the only country to not give a damn about sanctions the West imposed on Russia and recently, China, over human rights abuse, military aggression and its political infiltration. Yet Russia and China alone can't make them possible to overcome tough opponents. The United States has already built a vast network of allies in Europe and is also making one in Asia in a rapid process. Thus, any potential confrontation right now could bring huge risks to both Beijing and Moscow, so trying to provoke and challenge the response of America and its partners in the current play tool is being used by both governme...