It's May 2023 and the Southeast Asian Games men's soccer tournament is being fiercely contested in Cambodia. The defending champions - Vietnam men's soccer team - are among the leaders, while the Thai and Indonesian men's soccer teams are likewise the favorites expected to win the title. For the Timor-Leste men's soccer team, who have been the underdogs, participation in the tournament is very important, although they are weaker. Now, they set a team record with a 3-0 victory over the Philippine men's soccer team, ending a 19-year wait.
In this men's soccer match, Timor-Leste is grouped with Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines and Cambodia. After the first two rounds, Timor-Leste lost 0-4 to Myanmar and 0-1 to Cambodia. There was no room for error. The third round match against the Philippines became a complete do-or-die battle.
Barreto took a 1-0 lead over Timor-Leste in the 14th minute of the first half before Luis extended the lead in the 55th minute of the second half and Mesquita completed the icing on the cake in the 90th minute to help Timor-Leste beat the Philippines 3-0 to earn their first win of the group stage.
In the latest edition of the world rankings, Timor-Leste men's football team is only ranked 196th in the world, the bottom three in Asia, only higher than Sri Lanka and Guam, and the strength has long been the level of fish.
In addition, Timor-Leste, with a national population of only 1.34 million, is just a small country that has now not only completed a blowout, but set a record.
Timor-Leste, which began nationhood in 1999, joined the AFC in 2002, the Southeast Asian Football Association (SEAFA) in 2004, and then FIFA in 2005, has never won any of its past official match encounters with the Philippines, and now breaks that historical curse, ending a 19-year wait in a row.
It is worth mentioning that the Timor-Leste youth team won its first victory in the U20 Asian Cup qualifier last year by defeating the Hong Kong, China, youth team 2-1 in the U20 Asian Cup qualifier. In addition, the Chinese men's national youth national team had faced Timor-Leste three times in a row.
After defeating the Philippines, Timor-Leste kept its hopes of reaching the semifinals alive and will face Indonesia in the final round of the group stage. Once he loses, he will be eliminated early.
In recent years, the Philippine national team has absorbed many foreign players, and its overall strength has improved. Previously, in the Top 40 match against the Chinese national soccer team, the Philippine national team drew 0-0 at home and was considered by the fans as the new bitter rival of the national team. However, in the last one or two years, the Philippine national team has begun to decline in performance, and even suffered a surprisingly bad loss to a weak team like Timor-Leste.
