Silent Lonesome Man

Australia. A European entity that is on the Asian football family. It sounds strange but it is. When joining the AFC in 2006, the country has just begun to learn to build a concrete football culture, something it lacked entirely. And now, when its football is just enjoying decent growth, it is facing an uphill task of winning all remaining four games, in order to survive. But while Australia's task is really difficult, Vietnam is even in a greater issue: to win at least the first points ever in the qualification. Being the least experienced in this round alone sucks, but, pointless after six games is hardly acceptable. Now, beating Australia is the only way to keep Vietnam on track, which, in reality, more like a fiction than reality. Even a crisis-hit Chinese side still obtained three points from Vietnam, then leave alone how could Vietnam ever win a game. It's so questionable. This dark reality is also intermingled with another issue related to the upcoming trip: a hostile di...

I used to talk much about football in Asia and Europe, so when it comes to Africa, literally it is a region where knowledge about football vary. Of course, Africa has over 55 countries with different cultures and norms, especially even more relevant with the north-south divide from the Sahara desert. So far, North and West Africa have been the most successful regions of Africa, and also frequent participants in the FIFA World Cup. Southern and Central Africa, on the other hand, do have teams that take parts in World Cup and have African glories, though limited compared to North and West Africa. Only East Africa has little success, with Sudan and Ethiopia being the only two African champions, they have not even taken part in a World Cup. I think it is a perfect time to have a short glimpse, but hopeful, about one nation, for a long time, ravaged by wars and instabilities, but now is finding back where it belongs, to progress. Yes, this is DR Congo - the second largest country in Africa....

Iraq is a very passionate nation. Home to some of the oldest and most important civilisations in the world, the Mesopotamian basin was the land where various ancient empires, from Persia, Akkadia, Assyria, Greece and Rome. The Arabs brought Islam and the Arabic language, the Ottomans reinforced the Islamic rule, but none of them outclasses the other, and Iraq became a multicultural state where the Arabic language is the state language. With such a proud past, Iraq should have striven as an Asian football superpower, but they have underachieved so far. There is something the Iraqis lack, well, a question not easy to answer. Iraq is one of the World Cup participants from Asia, but its debut happened 35 years ago. A long, long drought. This was the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Despite the war with Iran at the time, being banned from hosting fixtures at home, Iraq was able to field a competitive national team and beat the UAE and Syria to qualify for their only World Cup to date. In that edition i...

This is the year 2021. When a Spanish daily, OK Diario, wrote about the strange existence of a lot of Vietnamese flags during the match in Saint Petersburg between Switzerland and Spain in the UEFA Euro 2020 , this has created a significant debate on the internet about the weird appearances of Vietnamese flags. As usual, I can easily realize two forms of arguments showing up themselves. The first belongs to the typical Vietnamese from Vietnam, usually from the north, as well as in the former Iron Curtain, to demonstrate great pride in being Vietnamese. It is possible considering these people living here originated from the north, where it had extensive trades and ties with the Soviet Union during its height. Millions of Vietnamese were sent there, but once the Soviet Union collapsed, most of them chose to stay there. Its connection with Vietnam is deep to depth, with political affiliation being mostly neutral, if not to say sympathy to the communist regime. The Vietnamese flags also ap...