Under the night curtains of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, our men's soccer team is about to embark on a life-and-death battle with Syria, which is the decisive battle in the Asian Qualifying Round 40. Although the situation seems to be favorable to our team, some people even optimistically predicted that even if we lose the game, there is a possibility of "lying win", but I am afraid that this is a misunderstanding of the lack of a deep understanding of Asian soccer and geopolitics. The reality is that if the national soccer team wants to advance, it must win all its matches in the final round, or else it will face the risk of being eliminated with less than 11 points. This can be seen in the AFC's refereeing arrangements for key matches.
It is worth mentioning that the match between the national soccer team and Syria will be enforced by Singaporean referee Taki Rahman. Despite the fact that in the last World Qualifier 12, Taki Rahman enforced the two matches of the national football team to lose 0-1, but the national football team was not in a disadvantageous position in the match, and the final loss was entirely due to their own mistakes. Therefore, fans do not need to worry too much about Taqi Rahman's enforcement.
However, the refereeing arrangements for a few other key matches left a lot of doubt. Here are the refereeing arrangements for some of the key matches:
00:30 Iran vs. Iraq Tantashev [Uzbekistan]
00:45 UAE vs Vietnam Shabah [Iraq]
02:00 Saudi Arabia vs. Uzbekistan Hassan [UAE]
The winners of these three matches will determine the first and second places in the group. The AFC's "tacit understanding" on refereeing arrangements is reminiscent of the refereeing arrangements for the final stage of the 2014 AYC.
At that time, our U19 national youth team was defeated by Qatar in the quarter-final, and before the match, AFC arranged Uzbek referee Ilmatov to enforce the match between our team and Qatar. Meanwhile, in the quarterfinal match between the Uzbek team and Thailand, the arrangement was Qatari referee Abdul Rahman to enforce the law. This arrangement meant that both the Uzbek and Qatari teams advanced. This is the AFC's "learning" in refereeing arrangements, and it is also a "big learning"!
The final round of the 40 strong match of the key game referee arrangement, also let a person feel this "learning". Iran and Iraq, although the Iraqi team strength is superior, but the team has a player infected with pneumonia, the core of the midfield Bashar Resan may not be able to play due to injury. The UAE's match with Vietnam will affect Vietnam's chances of advancing to the Round of 12 if they lose. In the match between Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, the Uzbeks will have to beat the Saudis if they want to advance.
In this complicated situation, the national soccer team must go all out for victory in the final round if they want to qualify for the Round of 12. Only by getting at least 11 points can they ensure qualification. Otherwise, facing the complicated Asian soccer and geopolitics, the national football team will face the risk of being eliminated.
