Sultan Al Ali (Dubai)
The opening round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup witnessed exciting events and surprising changes in the level of competition, reflecting the unprecedented convergence of levels between the Asian teams.
The results highlighted the difficulty of predicting the course of the qualifiers, as some teams ranked lower in the world were able to disrupt the path of teams ranked higher than them, which added more excitement to the football scene in Asia.
Palestine national team achieved a big draw with South Korea 0-0, and Palestine, ranked 95th in the world, showed an excellent defensive performance against the home team, which is ranked 22nd in the FIFA world rankings.
Despite the big differences in rankings, the Palestinian players showed great courage and were able to defend their goal, in a match that was expected to be easy for South Korea, to come out with a valuable point on the ground of a strong competitor and a permanent participant in the World Cup.
In Jeddah, the Indonesian national team, ranked 134th in the world, gave a distinguished performance against the Saudi “Green” team, ranked 56th in the world, and managed to draw 1-1. The Indonesians took the lead in the score before Saudi Arabia equalized with a late goal, leaving the Indonesian team determined to present itself as a stubborn and advanced competitor against the big teams in Asia.
On the other hand, the Jordanian capital Amman witnessed an unexpected result, when Kuwait, ranked 137th in the world, tied with Jordan, ranked 68th, with a score of 1-1. The “Blues” do not enjoy a high position in the world rankings, and are not experiencing their best football period, but they showed a fighting spirit, and succeeded in scoring the equalizer in the last minutes, after being behind, to achieve a positive result that motivates the players and fans in the upcoming rounds.
Our national team achieved a valuable victory over Qatar, ranked 35th in the world, with a score of 3-1 in Doha. The victory is important for the “Whites”, who succeeded in breaking a long series of Qatari victories, achieving a new accomplishment that enhances their chances of competing for a ticket to qualify for the “World Cup”. The victory showed that our national team is capable of achieving positive results.
In Australia, there was another surprise when Bahrain, ranked 81st in the world, beat Australia, ranked 23rd, 1-0. The goal came at the right time to give the “Reds” a historic win that enhances their chances of competing strongly to qualify, while Australia seems far from the level that has always made them a source of concern for all teams.
Although some other teams, such as Iran, Uzbekistan, Japan and Iraq, achieved expected victories without surprises, they struggled, with the exception of Japan, who won by “seven” against China, in collecting the three points. Iran outperformed Kyrgyzstan, who had the most shots on goal in the match, by one goal at home. In fact, Alireza, Iran’s goalkeeper, was the star of the match, stopping six shots.
In Uzbekistan, the situation was not better for the Uzbeks, as they lost possession to North Korea, and had an equal number of shots on goal. The Korean team also missed a penalty kick that would have made the match head to a 1-1 draw.
Iraq lost possession to Oman in a big way, and at home in Basra, Oman shot 11 times, 5 of which were on target, compared to 7 shots by Iraq, 3 of which were on target, and goalkeeper Jalal Hassan was the most star of the “Lions of Mesopotamia”.
The results of the first round confirmed that Asian teams are now able to challenge each other equally, which enhances the strength of the competition and makes the road to the 2026 World Cup more difficult and complex.
It is clear that every match will be a real test for the teams, and everyone needs to do their best to ensure qualification for the World Cup.
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