Eastern Promise: Asian Nations Yet To Taste Defeat In World Cup 2026

The Asian representatives remain the only continent yet to taste a defeat after completion of over 65% of the opening matches in the World Cup finals.

So far, there’s been 2 wins and 4 draws from games involving the AFC teams. These results have fixtures against top European opponents too, not just against the underdogs.

South Korea happened to be the first outing of an AFC side, up against Czechia. The Son Heung-min led side, managed to come from behind to win on a 2:1 scoreline.

Up next was Qatar, against the star padded Swiss side. Breel Embolo converted from the spot early on in the game to give Switzerland the lead, but just before the the whistle blew its last; Qatar’ pressure forced Miro Muheim to an own goal, to leave the game at 1:1.

Australia was drawn in group D, alongside host nation USA, Turkey and Paraguay. Turkey threatened fire and brimstones on Australia and managed to get over 70% of the ball possession, yet the Asian side were composed in defence. The game ended 2:0 in favour of Australia to keep the momentum on.

One of the toughest fixtures for the AFC nations is the one between Netherlands and Japan. Twice the Netherlands went up, twice the Japanese stood up to them to cancel both leads, leaving the game at a 2:2 draw by the final whistle.

Saudi Arabia came with their usual shocker of 2022, where they beat Argentina in their opener, only that luck just wasn’t on them as their early lead in the game was cancelled out just 10 minutes before the end of time, by Uruguayan M. Araujo. The night ended Saudi Arabia 1:1 Uruguay.

Iran up against New Zealand, showed how prepared the AFC teams are for the competition, Chris Wood combined nicely with Elijah Just on two occasions to keep Iran quite, at the end, it ended 2:2 for the sides.

As at the mornings of June 16th, the rest of Iraq, Jordan, and Uzbekistan are yet to play their opening matches. There’s a strong feeling in the air, that they would take the part of their sister Nations.

The bigger test now is whether these teams can maintain the form through the second round of group matches and convert their promising starts into knockout-stage qualifications.

Going on this momentum, Asian Football Confederation is likely to witness a record qualification into the knockout stages as against the previous record of 3.