4 Southeast Asian teams in the same group at the 2019 Asian Cup Finals?

Yesterday (April 12), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) conducted the seeding groups for the 2019 Asian Cup Finals. Contrary to initial predictions, the Vietnam national team fell into group 3, despite being ranked 103rd in the world and 17th in Asia. Meanwhile, Thailand was ranked in group 2. Previously, many people believed that Thailand would fall into group 4 because it was the lowest-ranked Southeast Asian team participating in the tournament in the UAE in January 2019.

According to the AFC, the reason Thailand is in Group 2 is because this team is among the 12 teams participating in the third qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup in Asia. Australia, which is also considered a member of the Southeast Asian region, but does not participate in the AFF, falls into Group 1 with top teams such as Iran, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the host UAE. The Philippines is in Group 4.

With the grouping results from AFC, 4 representatives from Southeast Asia are in 4 different groups and can completely fall into the same group. If this happens, the chance of Vietnam going further will be very bright, because in addition to Australia, which is considered superior, Thailand and the Philippines are familiar opponents and there is not much difference in level. Not to mention, 1 of the 4 third-place teams with the best results will also get a ticket to continue.

However, the worst case scenario is that Vietnam will fall into the “group of death”. In group 1, no matter which team they meet, they are all considered stronger than us. In group 2, China, Iraq, Qatar and Uzbekistan are all very strong. In group 4, Bahrain, Jordan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are very formidable forces.