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...

After the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup, six slots for the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup were decided: defending champions China, former world champions Japan, alongside South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and the joint-host nation, Australia, will take part. Among these participants, the Philippines and Vietnam will debut for the first time. But after the Asian Cup, one thing hangs in question: why does the AFC have no strategic plan to create an independent qualifier to the World Cup? And if it can do it one day, then how will it be? In term of women's football, Asia is among one of the most successful, second only to Europe. This has been the case since the first Women's World Cup held in China in 1991. Since then, two teams from this part, China and Japan, have jointly appeared in the final three times; the latter became the first Asian team to win the World Cup for the women in 2011. By this point, it should have been the inspiration for future success of Asi...

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 ...

On 20 February 2022, in the tourist islands-nation Maldives, two women's teams, both are less known to the world, marched into the pitch of Rasmee Dhandu Stadium in the capital Malé. That was no normal match however. It was a historic debut of the women's team of Saudi Arabia, the Middle Eastern Kingdom known for being strict and repressive toward women for decades. The opponents, Seychelles, is also a pretty less known African team, both in men's and women's level. In the end, the conservative met the unknown, and Saudi Arabia triumphed 2-0, courtesies by a corner kick strike from Al-Bandari Mubarak before Mariam Al-Tamimi doubled the lead. These ladies were the first-ever scorers for Saudi Arabia. 16 players were granted their historic debuts. Pelé, the greatest statue of international football, offered a congratulation on Twitter . When you get the congratulations from the Brazilian legend, it is certain that the country has won certification. Yet as CNN pointed out ...

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 February stage of the qualification in Asia has already witnessed teams that qualified, and teams that won't. How would it play out, though, is still on the hand. Group A Iran vs United Arab Emirates The 1-0 win in Tehran over arch-rival Iraq means Iran has officially become the first team in Asia to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, a complete turn around from the earlier troubles of the second round. Such remarkable turn around ensures Iran as the most powerful national team in Asia and a signal for any opponent to not underestimate the Iranian resolute. This is best seen with Iran's ability to deliver goals in necessary moments, as well as having an extremely capable defence since the arrival of Croatian  Dragan Skočić, conceding just three goals in process. Although Iran's World Cup record is anything but rosy, having never progressed beyond the group stage, the Iranians would try to obliterate its opponents to celebrate the revival of its fortune. This makes the...