AFF Cup qualifiers

Upon doing some research on the AFF Cup on Google, I finally found out more on this competition. In this post, I would mention briefly about the qualifiers.

The standings of the qualifiers:

Laos 10 pts
Phillipines 9 pts
Cambodia 5 pts
Brunei 4 pts
Timor Leste 0 pt

The top 2 teams qualify for the main competition.

As can be seen, there are 11 South-East Asian countries. All wanted to take part in the competition. As the competition would be made very hectic and gruelling, the organisers decided on a qualifying tournament, so as to prevent players from over-exhausting and attract more interest as the tournament would be a competition of the elite.

However, this act would cause weaker teams like Brunei and Timor Leste never to have a chance to qualify for the tournament. Therefore, no competition means no improvement. These would result in these countries, with small populations, to lose hope as their national team is unable to take part in any tournament.

Meanwhile, Cambodia, who had been participating regularly, had been kicked out before the main tournament begin on 12 Jan. Is there hope for the poor country? Laos and Phillipines progressed to the main draw deservedly.

As the qualifying tournament had ended in November last year, the main draw had already been given. Therefore, they would join the 6 teams who automatically qualified. They are: Holders Singapore, Runner-up Indonesia, semi-finalists Malaysia and Myanmar, traditional kings of South-East Asia Thailand and Vietnam. With these teams, they form 2 groups, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Phillipines in Group A, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos in Group B.

Both groups would be very competitive, as Myanmar and Malaysia battle for a place alongside favourites Thailand. Holders Singapore and runners-up Indonesia would receive stiff competition from an improved Vietnam.

At the recent king's Cup which Thailand, the hosts, lifted, Vietnam defeated Singapore 3-2 in a match. This suggests that Vietnam would fire from all cylinders to try and regain the glory and repay their fans' support for their national soccer side.

As the competition inches nearer, I would make a pre-tournament prediction that Thailand and Malaysia would progress from Group A and Singapore and Vietnam progress from Group B.

Happy catching the AFF Cup starting from 12 Jan this year!