In the group stage of the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the Chinese team basically reached the set goal. They beat Thailand 2-1 on the road and gained the initiative to qualify for the group.
Although only two rounds of the preliminaries group stage have been played, the performance of the national soccer team has brought some surprises to the fans. Another team, whose strength is obviously behind the national soccer team, performed far beyond expectations in the preliminaries and became the biggest dark horse. They are Malaysia.
For the past few years, a feeble Malaysia has been regarded by many as an Asian fishbowl team. However, in recent years, the Malaysian team has started to make great strides forward, soaring from 178th in the world rankings five years ago to 130th today, and up to 23rd in Asia.
In the last two rounds of group stage matches in the World Qualifiers, Malaysia have won two consecutive matches. In the first round of group matches, the hosts fell behind 1-3 to Tajikistan, but instead of giving up, they launched a furious attack on the rival's goal to bring the score to 3-3. In the last minute of injury time, Fassel Harin scored the killer goal to seal the comeback win over Tajikistan.
In the second round of group matches, Malaysia beat Chinese Taipei 1-0 away from home to make it two wins in a row since the start of the tournament. They are now top of Group D with six points and are well placed to be the first to qualify for the Asian Round of 18 in the World Qualifiers.
The Malaysian team's progress has surprised many fans. After all, they used to be the losers of the Chinese team. However, in a friendly match against Malaysia in September this year, the national soccer team drew 1-1 at home. From now on, this result is not about Malaysia being lucky to score 1 point, but about their overall strength really catching up with us.
Based on the results of the preliminary group stage alone, Malaysia has overtaken China. Currently, Malaysia is at the top of the group with 2 wins and 6 points from 2 matches, while China is third in the group with 1 win and 1 loss from 1 match. Whether or not they make it out of the group depends on the results of their next two matches against Singapore and whether or not South Korea can beat Thailand on the road.
Of course, the fact that Malaysia performed so well in the preliminary group stage is directly related to the grouping of Group D, apart from the fact that they have improved dramatically in their own strengths. Oman are the strongest players in this group and they are yet to play Malaysia. The other two teams, Kyrgyzstan and Chinese Taipei, are significantly weaker.
Although the luck of the grouping is quite good, we must also recognize that today's Malaysia is no longer the Asian fishbowl team it was back then. In the future, China will have a lot of opportunities to directly talk to Malaysia in Asia. If China is able to qualify for the Asian 18 in the World Qualifiers, they may be placed in the same group as Malaysia. At that time, the two teams will play two matches at home and away, who is stronger, through the results of these two matches at a glance...
