It is going to be tough for the Philippines now. Palestine is very good at keeping the lead. Their defence is very solid.
For more than one and a half year, we have been speculating on this forum; which teams will qualify? Who will be the hosts? What can we expect? Nothing concerning the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 went past us; we always knew what happened and we informed each other on it. Weather conditions, complications in hosting the tournament, the teams, the players, the coaches... like journalists we kept each other up to date, like real BigSoccer-football fans always should. Even though we supported different teams, we were allied by the same fact: we all supported hopeless non-footballing nations who had a tiny chance of actually making it to the Asian Cup. Druryfire, Pelefan, Afghan-Juventus, Fureeku, Suren01, GioGyan, aminou, and many many others... we were there when times were hard for the fans of Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Laos, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, the Maldives and now the Philippines. So now, except for the final analyzes, there's only one thing left to say. Dear BigSoccer-friends, it's an honour to finally give you the decisive answer. The 2014 AFC Challenge Cup in the Maldives is won by: PALESTINE
WAIT, WAIT,WAIT!!! I'm hearing that Brunei are putting in a complaint with the AFC. They are complaining that they never got to play their qualification matches and the whole thing should be expunged from record!!! And you really don't want to know what i'm hearing from the Bangladeshi camp!
Goal of the tournament: To complete the top 3: Maldives goal in 3rd place match Palestine goal in Final
Congratulations to Palestine! Their achievement is all the more impressive when you realize that they didn't concede a single goal.
Amazing. I've been on these boards since 2003. It's been a long time coming! Now time to get ready for Australia!
Thank you all! I'm sorry but I think I have to leave this thread now Is there one about the Asian Cup?
I remember a number of people here saying that the 2014 Challenge Cup would be by far the most competitive edition, and we were not disappointed. Aside from the sad incident involving the Afghan team, I think most fans would look back with a lot of pride. It was refreshing to see that none of the teams went home with zero points in the bag, which shows the closeness in quality of the participants. 2012 was disappointing in that respect due to the predictability, but the AFC Challenge Cup sure did conclude itself with a bang.
We should have a special review of all editions starting from 2006. How this has helped the Asian game and What now for the small nations, the NMI, Guam, Bhutans of this world.