Silent Lonesome Man

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 world is watching the Chinese conglomerate Evergrande Group, once among one of the most powerful companies in the world and the second biggest in China after Alibaba (owned by Jack Ma). The same company, yes, is now reeling under potential defaults. It is holding an inglorious record of being the most indebted conglomerate in the world, with more than $300 billion in debts. The Chinese government, which is embarking on a major crackdown on major firms to ensure that they would get the lesson about financial regulation - which is recently being imposed by Beijing to control the money influx and borrowings - has suddenly changed the tune and throwing over $14 billion cash to save the company. The current crisis of Evergrande is threatened to turn China into a major moment of another Lehman Brothers, the American company that crashed in 2008 and sparked a widespread economic crisis. The fear is real and Fitch to Moody had decreased the credit rating of the Chinese firm with the risk r...

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification in Asia is only a few weeks away before the final showdown. Out of 47 Asian states, only the last 12 nations will be there. Yet, the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification may be even more to see, not just because of football, but also outside elements. These issues are more relevant in two nations, which, ironically, have to play in two different yet familiar groups: Iran and China. With the announcement of Iran in group A and, earlier, China in group B, of the last phase of qualification, it would have been fine for someone who doesn't pay attention to football, or soccer if you are North Americans. Yet the draws have put Iran and China into two trajectory groups that will, instead, unite them with their increasingly heated enemies of the past. This made the sentiment increasingly uneasy yet necessary to speak out. Iran We start with group A, where Iran, the second-highest ranked team in Asia, will battle South Korea, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and...

When the world's most populous nation beat Syria 3-1 in Sharjah, it ensured one thing: China will not be eliminated from the contention. Yes, for Syria, this defeat was a meh word - Syria has already qualified to the same phase, and changed some players. But China, this win was worth paying, at least, for a short period. Yet we talk about China, we have to admit this: their qualification was not as easy as they thought. China was drawn in a fairly easy group, maybe even easier than Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran's, when FIFA President Infantino issued for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. At least on paper only. The Chinese Dragons were also led by the experienced World Cup winner, Marcello Lippi. By the time the draw was made, 17 July 2019, the situation was changing rapidly. Syria was already under crisis after its humiliating group stage ousting in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The three others weren't China's opponents either; the Philippines did qualify for the sam...