The Syrians were one of the six nations who failed to qualify for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament despite reaching the third round stage of the Asian qualifiers. Apart from Syria, the other teams are China People’s Republic (China PR), Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Vietnam. It must be pointed out that either one from Australia and the United Arab Emirates or both could still miss out on Qatar 2022 from the third round of the Asian qualifiers.

The Philippines are on a two-match losing run after suffering back-to-back defeats during the international break last month. Philippines Soccer suffered a major setback with the defeats to Malaysia and Singapore last month.

Philippines still have a lot of work to do to secure one of the 24 spots at the 2023 Asian Cup tournament scheduled to take place in ten stadiums across ten Chinese cities. As things stand, Philippines soccer won’t be represented in China unless qualification is sealed.

Although the Philippines Women Football Team were unfortunately sent packing from the Women’s Asian Cup tournament, they have shown some blistering signs that there are great and better things to come in the future from their team. Their fairytale came to an abrupt end in the tournament following their 2-0 loss at the hands of the South Korean team in the semi-finals of the competition but there were some positives to take out of the match.

Philippines Soccer received a big boost after the country received a bye in the first round of the World Cup 2022 qualifiers in the Asian region. Philippines Soccer and 33 others were drawn bye into the second round of the Asian qualifiers as far as the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament is concerned. The Asian teams who featured in the first round were Mogolia, Macau, Laos, Malaysia, Sir Lanka and Brunei. The other first round teams were Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Guam, Pakistan, Bhutan and Cambodia.

Philippines Soccer received a first round bye at the start of the qualifiers for next year’s FIFA World Cup tournament on Qatari soil as far as the Asian region is concerned. All the teams under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) except twelve teams were drawn bye into the second round from the first round. As pointed out earlier, Philippines Soccer also benefited from the decision to move all the top teams from the first round to the second round. The bottom twelve (12) teams that were not drawn bye into the second round include Brunei, Mongolia, Malaysia, Macau, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Laos, Timor-Leste and Cambodia. The others were Bhutan, Guam and Pakistan.

The target for Philippines Soccer is a spot at the Asian Cup 2023 tournament in China after missing out on qualification for next year’s FIFA World Cup tournament on Qatari soil.

Syria are rooted to the bottom of the Group A standings for the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers ahead of the tournament next year after their latest defeat. The Syrians ended on the wrong side of a five-goal thriller at home to Lebanon.