Asian imprint at the World Cup and the dream of 2026

Asian representatives rarely go deep at the World Cup, but this continent has produced stories about the most memorable "underdogs" of the tournament. For decades, victories at the biggest playground on the planet have been a luxury.

Asia's first victory at the World Cup took place in 1966 and they had to wait another 28 years to have the next victory. However, despite those challenges, some teams have exceeded expectations with victories that people call "giant-killers" (giant killers) still deeply imprinted in World Cup history.

Journeys of life

Exactly 60 years ago, North Korea's qualification for the World Cup became a headache for host England, with a story related to politics. Faced with the risk of losing the right to host, they conceded, but also changed a few things. On the football field, North Korea faced a huge challenge when they were in the same group as the Soviet Union (former), former world champion Italy and Chile - the team that finished third at the previous World Cup.

After the opening match losing 0-3 to the Soviet Union, the Asian representative drew 1-1 with Chile and then caused a shock when defeating Italy in the final round. This is also the first victory of Asian football at the World Cup. In the quarter-finals, North Korea caused a shock when leading Portugal 3-0 after only 25 minutes. However, legend Eusebio shone brightly with 4 goals, helping Portugal come back to win 5-3.

After that miracle, it took 28 years for Asia to have another victory at the World Cup, belonging to the first-time participant - Saudi Arabia. Losing 1-2 in the opening match against the Netherlands, but Saudi Arabia won 2 consecutive matches against Morocco and Belgium to win a ticket to the next round. Especially, the most remembered is the spectacular solo of Saeed Al Owairan in the match predicted Saudi Arabia would lose to Belgium by 12-0.

Saudi Arabia stopped before Sweden in the round of 16. Nearly 3 decades later, they created another shock when they defeated champion Argentina 2-1 at Qatar 2022.

In 2002, Asia hosted the World Cup for the first time, South Korea and Japan were the hosts. South Korea has not won any match in the previous 5 World Cup appearances, but against home fans, they beat Poland 2-0, drew with the USA 1-1 and defeated Portugal 1-0 to top the group.

In the knockout round, South Korea successively defeated Italy and Spain, before losing to Germany 0-1 in the semi-finals and then losing to Turkey in the third-place match. Despite the criticisms, South Korea is still the only Asian team to reach the World Cup semi-finals. That year, Japan reached the round of 16, despite experiencing a fairly impressive group stage - drawing with Belgium, winning against Russia and Tunisia.

Japan's story really exploded 20 years later, when the "Green Samurai" came back to beat both Germany and Spain with the same score of 2-1. Even when they stopped against Croatia in a penalty shootout in the round of 16, it was a journey to affirm the rising position of this country's football.

Hope 2026

World Cup 2026 marks a new chapter, when Asia has 9 representatives including: Australia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Uzbekistan. However, in the eyes of experts, Japan is still the biggest hope. Even, they themselves have "upgraded their confidence".

In 2022, coach Hajime Moriyasu said: "The players have shown us the future, a new era of Japanese football. If we are confident in that and think about overcoming them instead of just chasing after them, the future will be very bright." 4 years later, he spoke about the "championship". Of course, there are no shortage of laughter and sarcasm about it, called a "dream", but even without some important factors, Moriyasu knows that the Japanese people in general and his students in particular have something to say that is not intended to please fans.

It needs to be a unified, disciplined entity, it needs to be united in fighting, and this is abundant for the Japanese. So just wait and see.