#afc #worldcup #worldcupqualifiers #wc2026 #worldcup2026
Asian World Cup qualifiers returned in march, where Indonesia took two massive wins over Vietnam. Iraq are on fire, India embarrassing loss and Akram Afif is unstoppable at the moment!!
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0:00 – Intro
0:27 – Group A
3:05 – Group B
4:00 – Group C
6:25 – Group D
8:35 – Group E
9:20 – Group F
14:25 – Group G
15:35 – Group H
16:26 – Group I
18 Comments
Lebanon get to stay in Australia for a week in a 5 star hotel… I’m guessing that’s why.
🫡👊🏿
Sadly Stimac isn't getting sacked anytime soon. Our federation is shite. 😢
Great recap
We’re going to see a few debuts in the 2026 WC; I think Iraq & UAE could definitely be there.
The main reason for the rise of Indonesia. They have accepted players of dual citizenship of represent them. That means they now have a players with backgrounds from European football and playing in European leagues available for them. A lot of players growing up in Netherland for an example. Players like Shayne Pattynama, Sandy Walsh, Rafael Struick, Marselino Ferdinan and Jay Idzes. many of those players being very young too. So Indonesia can in fact become quite good in the future if they keep this up.
Other countries in the regions most follow up by allowing dual nationalities represent them or risk falling way behind Indonesia. Just imagen how good India actually could be if they called upon all those players playing in England with Indian heritage.
My country India is a f'ing disgrace.
Good job man. Hard to find someone covering this stuff in English and actually know ball. Oh by the way your kit lol Mexico got cooked 😆
Unpopular opinion; but i think Troussier is a tiny bit over hated. Sure his Asian Cup results were bad, but his performances against Japan and Iraq respectively was pretty good.
I think it's true the expectations were high, and he just couldn't fill the boots of Park Hang-Seo. (Idk his problem with Indonesia tho)
Palestine's attack is getting stronger as FIFA decided today to permit Wessam Abou Ali to switch representation from Denmark to Palestine. He played in the Swedish and Danish top leagues and recently joined Al-Ahly in Egypt (champs of Africa), he's a real striker which Palestine needed as Dabbagh is more of a winger or a False 9, they'll definitely make a great duo!
I am not into Asian football for a while now to focus on Europe and Copa America, especially glad to have Georgia making debut in the upcoming Euros (though I also feel a bit sad to see Greece denied), so I am surprised with the new situation all around.
Australia, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Iran, Iraq and the UAE are too OPs for their respective tables. Even Japan is likely too, no matter their messy politics with North Korea like, having completed nine points and pretty much will add another three if FIFA wishes to do so.
The fascination of mine will now turn to group C, D and G. In group C, you have South Korea simply going to walk in Singapore, leaving an underperformed China to square up against underachieved Thailand in a match of the botchers. Especially Thailand, the team that cannot live up to expectation when they are at the best form (losing 0-3 to Korea after holding the same giant 1-1 away is beyond thinking). In group D, you have Kyrgyzstan, Oman and Malaysia remain in the fight and everything can change. Meanwhile, you have Saudi Arabia dominating group G but they haven't performed to their true expectation lol, while Jordan and Tajikistan are likely to battle for one last spot; surprisingly Tajikistan performed pretty well despite having had a new coach so far suggested this is not going to be a walk for Jordan.
As if Thailand isn't sad enough, I also feel pity for Vietnam though. They made me remember the case of Fernando Santos; PZPN expected the man would deliver because of his CV with Greece and Portugal could be useful for Lewandowski-reliant Poland, only for the worst to come later on. Maybe South Korea under Klinsmann can also come to play (though South Korea has far better players though). You may think that a World Cup manager could help you but be careful with your choice, man, not all of them are capable.
As a Czech-Viet, the disaster of Vietnam in recent WCQ can at least be compensated by Czechia's good forms prior to Euro 2024. Yet even then the sad lesson is clear.
Troussier's tactical problem has long predated even before he arrived to Vietnam; his coaching method is entirely African, given his first real coaching career started in Ivory Coast, before going for the likes of Nigeria, Burkina Faso, South Africa. I believe this was what shaped his extreme obsession with possession football, as he believed that Asian players can do what African players should do. When he marked his golden age with Japan in the 1999-2002 era, Asian football had yet to develop as good as it is today and many Asian teams were also obsessed with possession football, which was why Troussier succeeded in Japan.
However, since the 2002 World Cup, Asian football has evolved, but Troussier failed to catch up. His undying obsession with possession-based tactics didn't work out anymore. He failed with Qatar in 2004, then he struggled to work out because his philosophy has become something outdated for Asians. If you look at African teams in the most recent World Cup in 2022, even Morocco that had gone far only because they sought to play different type of football and that possessive football didn't work; meanwhile all other teams trying to play the obsessive possession football, only Senegal advanced furthest, but still lost 0-3 to England.
I believe if Troussier had been coach of Cameroon, DR Congo, Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Mali, Egypt, Angola or Ghana, he would have had a pretty decent career. But no, he still believed his African philosophy work with Asian teams. This sparked the Vietnam disaster as you see now. Vietnamese players are not Nigerians, Congolese, Senegalese, Cameroonians or even Moroccans; Vietnam does not have type of players similar to Vincent Aboubakar or Victor Osimhen to play that kind of football. Indonesia would lose to Troussier if Troussier were coach of an African team, but Indonesia would remain invincible as long as Troussier stayed in Asia – that's fact.
He had to go. Cameroon is offering him a contract and I expect he can finally get his redemption.
From what I understand, lebanon’s home game is played in Australia because Australia would help carry out organizational duties and it’s more logistically viable
Thanks for providing a big recap of the WCQ, especially regarding Indonesia's great results against Vietnam. We were only steps away of playing in the third round.
I can't even wait for Maqwell's video on his reaction to Vietnam's embarrassment.
Go go go our country, Indonèsia into world cup 2026. God willing bro. Indonèsian football was powerful.
#godwillingbro
🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩
Good video.
You will also speak about Concacaf qualifiers 1th round? It is very interesting,with four of the bottom 5 rankings involved and with "two first times" from Virgin Britain Islands and Anguilla.
I am from Spain but of Filipino ancestry myself so I have some thought about this. Especially regarding the ASEAN region because this is where my family are from (I can't speak any language there except Spanish and English). You look at Vietnam and Thailand's situations and suddenly you realise they are in a severe crisis unseen before. They used to be seen as the flagbearers of whole ASEAN but now they appear so dysfunctional. But their crises are not the same.
With Vietnam's case, it's purely poor choice of manager over a promising crop of players. They opted for a man whom, as mentioned in a comment there, obsessed with Africa-like football. This ultimately resulted in Vietnam's massive struggle and their doomed campaign. The previous Korean coach created Vietnam as a massive fortress of unity and strength uneasy to overcome, yet the Frenchman Troussier that succeeded the Korean demolished all the legacies for his vision of football. He made Vietnam look so timid and uncreative. Indonesia maximised from this opportunity to exploit.
With Thailand's case, it's not the poor choice of manager like Vietnam, but rather the entirety of an inflated squad combined with players' oversized ego with overrated capabilities from the very oversized (and extremely rich) Thai League, rather than their reality. People thought that they held Saudi Arabia and South Korea earlier meant that Thailand had reached their superiority, yet the Koreans crashed the Thais back to earth right in front of home fans. The same attitude when they squared up against China, thinking that weakened China would be easy to beat yet ended up losing. While the coach of Thailand, the Japanese Ishii, is clearly the right choice (and even the earlier Brazilian one), he has been unable to have full control of his players, whose ego and individualism are too great to manage. The lack of common sense and uncontrollable individualism, unfortunately, has long plagued Thailand even as far as the 1990s.
I think this is likely the chance for Malaysia and Indonesia to press forward. But for who to go further, there is one thing to be clear: Australia remains the ultimate boss of the whole ASEAN no matter what.
I am honest a bit but Thailand always appears good at some points only to collapse later on. They don't look like a team but rather a bunch of rag-tag individuals combined as a team. Having watched Thailand football when I visited here as a tourist, I found like they are capable to become brilliant players, but to become cohesive like a team, not so much. Think of why China and South Korea, even in their poorest forms, still managed to beat Thailand right in front of home fans, show something about it.