The qualification campaign for the 2023 Asian Cup tournament resumes this week with third round matches and Philippines soccer would be a participant. The third round of the 2023 Asian Cup is a group format and the Philippines are in Group B alongside Yemen, hosts Mongolia and Palestine.

The Philippines will start their third round qualifiers against Yemen at the MFF Football Centre in Ulaanbaatar on Wednesday. On the same day, Palestine will take on hosts Mongolia at the same venue to complete the first set of games in Group. Philippines soccer has suffered on the international scene in recent times with two successive defeats against Malaysia and Singapore in March. Continue reading “PHILIPPINES RESUME A/CUP QUALIFIERS AGAINST YEMEN” →

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 United Arab Emirates and Australia finished third in Group A and Group B respectively in the third round of the Asian qualifiers ahead of this year’s World Cup. The two teams will face each other in a playoff in June with the winner scheduled to take on South American side Peru in the inter-confederation playoffs in the same month. Continue reading “QATAR: HOW SYRIA FAILED TO QUALIFY” →

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 Soccer had built a winning momentum with victories over Timor-Leste and Myanmar in December 2021 before the two international friendlies last month. The Philippines had two wins from their last three games before the matches against Malaysia and Singapore. The 2-1 defeat to Thailand was sandwiched between the Timor-Leste and Myanmar games. Continue reading “PHILIPPINES ON TWO-MATCH LOSING RUN” →

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.

The first two rounds of the 2023 Asian Cup was also the same as the first two rounds of the Qatar 2022 qualifiers in the Asian section. In the first round, Philippines soccer received a bye to the second round. For the second round, Philippines were in a five-team group alongside the Peoples Republic of China (China PR), Guam, Maldives and Syria. They were all drawn into Group A. Continue reading “PHILIPPINES: 2023 ASIAN CUP QUALIFICATION REVIEWED” →

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.

Firstly, it was a history-making campaign for the Philippines women and that alone would raise their hopes even though they would have really loved to be in the finals battling it all out for the title. But another positive thing to pick out of the match is that their chances of making it to the FIFA Women’s World Cup next hear have been boosted. Their participation at the tournament would be their first time and they are expected to reach the heights following their exploits at the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup.
Continue reading “PHILIPPINES CRASH OUT OF WAC BUT SHOW GREAT SIGNS” →

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.

34 teams joined the six teams who scaled through the first round. The six teams who reached the second round from the first round were Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Guam, Malaysia and Cambodia. The 40 teams were drawn into eight groups of five teams each.
Continue reading “QATAR 2022: HOW PHILIPPINES SOCCER FARED” →

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.

In the second round, Philippines Soccer featured alongside four others in Group A. The Philippines senior national team were drawn in the same group as Guam who saw off Bhutan in the first round to secure their place in the second round. Guam lost the first leg of their first round clash at Bhutan 1-0 before they produced a five-star performance in the second leg to seal their second round spot. Guam thrashed Bhutan 5-0 at home to seal a 5-1 aggregate win and a place in the second round. Apart from the Philippines and Guam, China PR, Maldives and Syria were also in Group A.
Continue reading “PHILIPPINES: QATAR 2022 QUALIFYING CAMPAIGN REVIEWED” →