Following in the footsteps of Vietnam, Southeast Asia is approaching a record number in the continental arena
Amazing start
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is the first team to win a place at the 2023 Asian Cup. The red shirt army won this ticket thanks to the achievement of reaching the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup.
The third qualifying format of the Asian Cup 2023: 24 teams divided into 6 round-robin groups. The six group winners and five best second-place teams win tickets to the 2023 Asian Cup.
Not getting a ticket as early as the Vietnamese team, 7 other representatives of Southeast Asia must participate in the third qualifying round of the 2023 Asian Cup. Besides Thailand and the Philippines in the second seed group, the opportunity for the remaining 5 teams are not appreciated.
But in the first match of the third qualifying round of the 2023 Asian Cup, the Southeast Asian representatives created many impressive victories.
The most surprising is the Indonesian team. Despite playing away, the Van Dao team still came back to beat the host Kuwait to earn all 3 points. With this victory, Indonesia almost certainly has one of the top two positions and is ready to compete for the top with Jordan.
Indonesia (red shirt) suddenly overcame Kuwait with a score of 2-1.
Malaysia also had an excellent performance when welcoming Turkmenistan. They took advantage of home advantage to score 2 goals into the opponent’s net in just the first 16 minutes and eventually ended the match with a score of 3-1. Similar to Indonesia, the Malaysian team is considered to have eliminated a direct competitor and is approaching the Asian Cup finals.
Malaysia won to convince Turkmenistan.
The Thai team as expected did not have much difficulty defeating the Maldives with a 3-0 difference. What teachers and coaches Mano Polking aim for is the match against Uzbekistan on June 14 to compete for the top spot.
In Group B, the Philippines started with a 0-0 draw with Yemen. The opportunity still remains with the Southeast Asian representative if they overcome Mongolia before entering the decisive match against Palestine.
Regretful failures
Despite recent progress, the continental qualifying round is still too big of a challenge for the Cambodian team. Losing to India 0-2 on the opening day, the Angkor team almost gave up hope of going on.
In Group F, the two Southeast Asian representatives did not have a good start. Myanmar still continues its series of declines when losing 0-4 at the hands of Tajikistan. Meanwhile, Singapore unfortunately lost points despite leading Kyrgyz.
Singapore (blue shirt) cannot have a point against Kyrgyzstan.
After minutes of trying to defend, Singapore could not stand anymore and eventually conceded 2 goals in just over 5 minutes (from 77 to 82 minutes). To lose 1-2, the next door of the Lion Island team is becoming very narrow.
Southeast Asia makes history at the 2023 Asian Cup?
Three years ago, the 2019 Asian Cup saw three Southeast Asian teams, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. With the results so far, the opportunity for Southeast Asia to set a new record for the number of teams present in the Asian Cup is quite large.
In addition to the Vietnam team, which soon won the ticket, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia all opened the door to continue, while the Philippines still had the right to self-determination in their hands.
Will Southeast Asia have about 4-5 representatives for the first time in the 2023 Asian Cup?
Having many teams present at the Asian Cup will be a proof that Southeast Asian football is making steady progress. And when the World Cup finals increase the number of teams from 32 to 48 in the future, Southeast Asia has the right to hope to soon have a representative at the biggest football festival on the planet.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: cafebiz.vn – Read the original article here
