Syria likely to qualify for the World Cup

[dtaai-maai]

Meanwhile, Syria - who are playing all their games away from home because of the civil war in the country - won their third straight World Cup qualifying match on Tuesday, beating Cambodia 6-0 in Phnom Penh.

Syria, who have scored 13 goals without conceding any, are top of Group E with nine points. The country has never qualified for a World Cup.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/34193170

Found this tucked away in a BBC article on crowd trouble in Malaysia on Tuesday.
A devastating civil war seems to be a motivating factor for a nation's footballers...

[PeteC]

None of them may ever go home when the games are over..... IMO.

[Zidane]

It would be nice if Syria did make it to the finals but,at present,they are only top of Group E in the second qualifying round.
If they stay top,they get automatic qualification to the third qualifying round but with only 4 or 5 teams to qualify for the Finals in Russia they will face tough competition from the likes of South Korea,Japan,Australia,Saudi Arabia,Qatar,Iran,Iraq,North Korea,Kuwait and,maybe even,Thailand !

[GLCQuantum]

I watched the whole Thailand VS Iraq game and was really entertained. Mostly due to such sloppiness allowing for goal scoring opportunities every 5 minutes.

Iraq should have been, at least, 4 nil up at half time but went in with just the one goal. Pretty soon after the 2nd half kicked off, Iraq made it 0-2. There was no coming back for Thailand at that point. 'Useless' didn't really cut it - but a late penalty and Thailand's only skillful play of the game saw them get two quick fire goals to level late on.

Possibly the first game with Thailand playing that I've been 'entertained', so who knows... maybe there's hope for them yet.