The draw has been made for the men’s Fifa World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers, and for the women’s and men’s group stages of this year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. The Asian Games will take place from September 23 to October 8. Group A: China, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Group B: Taiwan, Thailand and India. Group C: North Korea, Singapore and Cambodia. Group D: Japan, Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh. Group E: South Korea, Hong Kong, Philippines and Myanmar. Grp E is the Group of Death with 2 WC participants I believe this tournament will be held outside the FIFA calendar so teams like the Philippines who have pros in Europe will be handicapped if they cannot get their pro players released by their respective clubs. This tournament because of it's timing can also serve as a good preparation for the Olympic qualifiers 2nd round which starts later in October.
That's as the same as saying that Group C is the only group in the history of a tournament with just one single team, Singapore.
Not on the pitch yet... but still... https://x.com/ChinaWfootball/status/1703017819309502485?s=20 rumour has it Korea DPR will play Singapore twice (one match out of tournament I guess)
Schedule Group A 22.09 China - Mongolia 25.09 Mongolia - Uzbeklistan 28.09 Uzbekistan - China Group B 21.09 Chinese Taipei - India 24.09 India - Thailand 27.09 Thailand - Chinese Taipei Group C 24.09 Korea DPR - Singapore 27.09 Singapore - Korea DPR *Cambodia withdrew Group D 22.09 Vietnam - Nepal 22.09 Japan - Bangladesh 25.09 Bangladesh - Vietnam 25.09 Nepal - Japan 28.09 Japan - Vietnam 28.09 Nepal - Bangladesh Group E 22.09 Hong Kong - Philippines 22.09 Korea Republic - Myanmar 25.09 Myanmar - Hong Kong 25.09 Philippines - Korea Republic 28.09 South Korea - Hong Kong 28.09 Philippines - Myanmar Quarterfinals 30.09 QF1 Winner Group A - Runner-up Group B/D QF2 Winner Group B - Runner-up Group D/E QF3 Winner Group C - Runner-up A/B/E QF4 Winner Group D - Winner Group E Semifinals 03.10 QF1 vs. QF2 QF3 vs. QF4 Final and 3rd place match 6.10 China with a highway into the final... Japan with team B (youths + some WE League players as team A play 2 friendlies with Argentina at the same time in Japan) Korea Republic with team B Korea DPR - unknown Philippines - mostly with team B Vietnam - pretty much the same squad as in WWC (minus 2-3 players) Chinese Taipei - with team A Thailand - with team A, new coach... but with the same problems (very young squad) Uzbekistan - with team A
As expected the Philippines would be missing several of their professional players that played in the WC including their best defender Angela Beard(Linkoping FC), the two players from Iceland Dominic Randle and Captain Tahnai Annis who both start for their teams, Angela Barker who probably had commitments to her company as the scientist/ biomedical engineer responsible for overseeing several product lines and Ryley Bugay who has retired from competitive soccer to concentrate on her medical studies but for the most part most of the WC contingent is available. The missing players were replaced by members of their U 20 national youth teams as well as reserves from Team B.
Young WC veterans Frilles and Flanigan also did not make the Philippine Asian team due to college or professional commitments. They also brought back local Inna Palacios as the 3rd goalie to sit on the bench and serve as a mentor for the younger local players instead of young Stanford commit Kai Jota who filled the spot in the WC. New training camp invite Zoe Hudson who plays in Portugal"s top league did not make the team this time because she wasn't included in the preliminary expanded list given to the Asian Games organizers but will be available for callup to the Olympic qualifiers.
Group B Chinese Taipei 2 - 1 India Lai Li-Chin 68', Su Yu-Hsuan 84' --- Tamang 46' Chinese Taipei --------- 1m ----- 3p ----- 2-1 India ------------------------ 1m ----- 0p ----- 1-2 Thailand ------------------ 0m ----- 0p ----- 0
FT. Philippines 3-1 Hong Kong. Bolden, Quezada and Guillou scored The Philippines is still adjusting to their new coach Torcaso who implemented a more possession short passing style game compared to Staj's long ball approach. Most of the starters got together for the first time under the new coach a few days ago so they had to adjust quickly. The same players you expect to make the goals scored. Bolden has the privilege of scoring the first ever goal for the Philippines in both the World Cup and Asian Games.
Nothing too surprising there - though, since Vietnam has always been in that "second tier" of Asian teams alongside Thailand, Taiwan, etc., I would've expected them to beat Nepal by more.
The South Korean team retained many of the same team that played in the WC minus a few veterans including MF Cho Soyun, Lee Young Ju, Lee Geum Min, several older players(35 y.o.'s ) and 16-yo Casey Phair so I think they are favored to win over the Philippines who only have 13 of their WC veterans on the Asian Cup roster. They also retained their coach Colin Bell while the Philippines hired a new coach who barely had time to get to know them before starting the Asian Games.
Round 1 Group A China 16 - 0 Mongolia Shuang Wang 2' 18' 26' 37' 59', Shanshan Wang 8' 31', Y. Liu 24', L. Yang 39', J. Yan 49' 84', Wurigumula 57' 86', Y. Ou 73', X. Zhang 76' 90'+2 China ------------ 1m ----- 3p ----- 16-0 Uzbekistan ----- 0m ----- 0p ----- 0-0 Mongolia -------- 1m ----- 0p ----- 0-16 Group B Chinese Taipei 2 - 1 India Lai Li-Chin 68', Su Yu-Hsuan 84' --- Tamang 46' Chinese Taipei --------- 1m ----- 3p ----- 2-1 India ------------------------ 1m ----- 0p ----- 1-2 Thailand ------------------ 0m ----- 0p ----- 0 Group C Korea DPR --------- 0m ----- 0p ----- 0-0 Singapore ---------- 0m ----- 0p ----- 0-0 Group D Vietnam 2 - 0 Nepal HY. Pham 53', TBT Nguyen 64' Japan 8 - 0 Bangladesh Chiba 7' 29', Tanikawa 8' 80', Shiokoshi 45', Hijikata 49', Sakakibara 58' 85' Japan ------------- 1m ----- 3p ----- 8-0 Vietnam ---------- 1m ----- 3p ----- 2-0 Nepal ------------- 1m ----- 0p ----- 0-2 Bangladesh ----- 1m ----- 0p ----- 0-8 Group E Hong Kong 1 - 3 Philippines Cheung 38' --- Bolden 8'(p.), Quezada 89', Gillou 90'+1 Korea Republic 3 - 0 Myanmar Eunyoung Lee 24', Soyun Ji 60', Eun Ha Jeon 68' Korea Republic ------ 1m ----- 3p ----- 3-0 Philippines ------------ 1m ----- 3p ----- 3-1 Hong Kong ------------ 1m ----- 0p ----- 1-3 Myanmar -------------- 1m ----- 0p ----- 0-3
The South Korean women’s football team will likely avoid Japan in the early stages of the Hangzhou Asian Games but may face North Korea after a sudden bracket change announced Monday. South Korea will instead face North Korea in the quarterfinals, if they win Group E and North Korea wins Group C. South could face North in Asiad women's football tournament (joins.com)
North Korea's first international match after a 4-year break.... North Korea 7 - 0 Singapore I only counted 4-5 players in the current North Korea squad who were also in the squad during their last international matches at the 2019 Cyprus Cup: PAK Sinjong (bench) WI Jongsim (captain) JU Hyosim (starting XI) RI Haegyong (starting XI)* - I am not sure if she is the same player as Ri Hae-yon. SUNG Hyangsim (from the bench) The average age of this 'new' North Korean team is 22.
I know the article says in that one sentence that the two Koreas *will* face each other if they both win their groups, but I don't think that's correct. It seems to me that it all depends on which second-place team from A/B/D/E does *not* qualify for the QFs, with their spot being taken by the winners of group C. Since TPE and THA both beat IND by only one goal, I think it's highly likely that one of them will be the odd-ones-out; only other possibility I see is some logjam between PHI/MYA/HKG. Either way, the runner-up of group D should qualify for the QFs (as I see VIE beating BAN by multiple goals) so that would be KOR's opponent in the QFs.
Well at least S Korea won't face Japan until the Finals if both teams top their group. Initially they would have faced each other in the quarter finals.
Not so sure. Only 2-0 before the break... and also I would expect end result in double digits (akin to China 16 - 0 Mongolia). It's rather obvious that these young NK players have not played many matches togheter. On the other hand selection of young players gives hope that Korea DPR is building the squad for the future and the team will be back in competition for AFC Cup, WWC and Olympics. #AsianGames2023Brand new Team DPRK is back 🫰🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵 pic.twitter.com/S41gLA7Jkx— Chinese Women Football Info (@ChinaWfootball) September 24, 2023
To be fair, the difference between 6-0 and 16-0 usually comes down to how well the better team is finishing their shots that day rather than being a statement on how good the better team actually is. But yeah, Singapore is ranked #130 with a rating about 55% that of North Korea, so it's hard to read too much into the scoreline. Real test will be whatever QF match they get