Five teams that exited early eclipsed the field as the schedule progressed. Taipei suffered their fourth consecutive loss and are now as much as six points behind Malaysia in third place, even after two consecutive defeats in June. In a similar situation to Hong Kong, Turkmenistan also exited the tournament with only one point from four matches, having been overpowered by Iran and Uzbekistan. Pakistan and Nepal also failed to win a single point in four matches, and despite their efforts in the last two rounds, they only managed to finish third in the group, regrettably missing out on the next 18 matches.
Our eyes will be on the seven teams with seven or more points whose victory in the next round could hold the key to advancement. Our men's soccer team, in particular, is expected to leapfrog into second place in the group if it can add three more points in the June battle in Thailand. If they can beat South Korea in a thrilling match, they may even leap to the top of the group. Of course, this is all based on the harsh premise that South Korea will not defeat Singapore.
It is worth mentioning that the national team still has a chance of survival, theoretically, even if the remaining two matches are lost, there is still the possibility of advancement. The analysis is as follows: in the penultimate round, if the national team loses to Thailand, Thailand's points will rise to seven, and if the national team wins the match between South Korea and Singapore, South Korea will advance to 13 points, and Singapore will only accumulate one point, declaring that it is out of the game. In the final round, if the national team loses to South Korea, although the points remain seven, South Korea moves up to 16. If Thailand loses to Singapore, Thailand's points remain at seven and Singapore moves up to four. According to the rules, South Korea will lock out qualification if the top two in the group advance. The national team is tied with Thailand on seven points and will have to compare win-loss relationships, goal difference, red and yellow cards and other factors. In terms of win-loss ratio, the two teams have won and lost against each other, so goal difference needs to be looked at. If the national team has a better goal difference, they are expected to qualify for the group stage together with South Korea!
The remaining 14 teams still have hopes of advancing, but the situation is complicated by the multiple rounds of matches involved. In Group A, for example, Qatar is locked in early with 12 points, India and Afghanistan have four points each, and Kuwait has three points. Their path to promotion is still full of suspense. The win or loss of any one game could upend the rankings of the three teams, which is undoubtedly the most chaotic group in the Asian preliminaries.
