Jordan away in Taiwan on Thursday 13:10 CET. Massive and hope for an upset. Kuwait Nepal at 19:00 CET.

We kick off at 6:30pm local time. Forecast is 40 degrees at kick off with 20% humidity. 

I recall at least one article mentioning a camp in the UAE during the first matchday ahead of our first game.

It wouldn't surprise me. We've spent a lot of time there and it's well connected. 

A sauna!

LOL 20% humidity is dry!

Confirmed in the Taggart article: "The entire 23-man squad has now assembled in Dubai for Wednesday's match (01:30 AEST)"

These German 90+ mornings are horrid. Sweating like crazy. It's dropped now! 

It's here! AFC matches across the continent today. On the one hand it's fun to watch everyone else get started but I'm anxious to see ourselves get a win to start. 

Jordan away in Taiwan on Thursday 13:10 CET. Massive and hope for an upset. Kuwait Nepal at 19:00 CET.

Ah shit we're playing at 17:30 CET. I'll be teaching then. Last time I taught during a match we were in Thailand and my phone notifications put me in cold sweat and I could barely concentrate. Was praying for a 3:2 but it wasn't to be. It was horrible reading the match thread. 

Japan host Paraguay in a friendly at 8:20 pm Sydney time. They're so organised. We're absolutely terrible on so many fronts. 

Saunas are dry, Turkish baths are steamy according to those who use them.

Nevertheless, it is very hot in Kuwait at this  time of year.

Arnold seems to hate friendlies, thought it would have been a good idea to get a match before probably our most important game. Fuck up here then we need to get something away to Jordan.

There are a lot of eggs in the Basket come Tuesday evening. I hope that there are a few steady hands nearby. This is a strange place to be in as the FFA would have deemed Arnie to have been the safe choice for NT coach.

Japan just beat Paraguay 2-0.
Korea Rep starts in about 30 minutes again Euro minnow Georgia.

Absolute scenes if Kuwait score an early goal

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Check out all the info in the Asian football section. 

https://forum.insidesport.com.au/2778951/2022-FIFA-World-Cup-qualifiers-2023-AFC-Asian-Cup-qualifiers?PageIndex=3&Update=1#bm2829483

Georgia South Korea ended 2:2.

Look at that though. South Korea manage to sort a friendly in Istanbul against Georgia. We should have sorted a game with UAE. 

Kuwait lead 3:0. Iraq level late against Bahrain. So far it's decent in that many teams have had draws minimising their total points for the 2nd placed ranking. The Palestine upset has tossed that group around as I feel they'll eventually lose elsewhere.

If Qatar, the World Cup hosts, win their group or finish as one of the four best second-placed teams, their spot in the third round will be given to the fifth best second-placed team.^[4]

Not good news for Nepal at all, down 5-0 so far in the 80th minute away to Kuwait.

Hopefully we'll take some of that GD off them on matchday 2.

Pleasant surprise to see such a small win for Jordan, we know that they can't play away but I expected more.

Incidentally, they're also knocked out of the basketball world cup. You'd also expect more from a country named after Michael Jordan.

Six players that faced Australia in our 0-4 friendly win in the starting XI against Nepal today, same coach too.

7-0 for Kuwait now, oh boy.

It's a challenge to keep track of all their players. There's always a bit of change amongst these nations. Maybe they've turned the next a corner and will be much better than 12 months ago? 

Given it's the same coach I'd wager it's more likely that they rested players in tonight's match with Nepal ahead of their match against Australia, and our game will see an even more familiar XI.

In any case, the friendly we played was not long after their ban was lifted, and they've no doubt improved as a team in the last few months now that they can play.

The first round of games have shown that we should take nothing for granted in this qualifying series. Kuwait will have their confidence up. Chinese Taipei have thrown up a good result - massive game on Tuesday!

“Sport Thought: Arnold, Socceroos can't afford slip-ups on World Cup path Michael Lynch September 7, 2019 — 6.30pm It might seem to be a match taking place almost in a vacuum, so quiet has been the lead-up. But Australia's clash with Kuwait early Wednesday morning (AEST) has a significance which belies its relatively low-key build-up. Graham Arnold's Socceroos are about to begin the qualification phase for the next World Cup in 2022. Graham Arnold's Socceroos are about to begin the qualification phase for the next World Cup in 2022.AP It is the beginning of a long, and what will almost certainly turn out to be a hard, road to the next World Cup in Qatar in 2022. It will also provide the first real test - in a competitive fixture rather than a friendly - of where the Socceroos have got to following their disappointing quarter-final exit in the Asian Cup earlier this year. In wider terms the game and those that follow it have enormous significance, as World Cup qualification has become even more important than ever for Football Federation Australia following the schism in the game's governance. Now that the A-League is being run by the clubs, who will capture the bulk of TV cash and marketing and sponsorship monies generated by the competition, FFA's main revenue stream will be the national teams, the Socceroos and the Matildas. With qualification for the World Cup worth millions of dollars (just making the last 32 for Russia 2018 netted FFA nearly $US10 million) it is clear just how crucial it is for Graham Arnold's team to negotiate their way through the minefield they must cross in Asia. Without the cash that World Cup qualification will provide, FFA - which must now find more sponsors and other ways of boosting cash flow to bankroll grassroots development and pay for the national teams - will be up against it. The reality is that for Australia it is getting harder and harder to make it to the biggest sporting show on the planet. It always seemed virtually impossible in the old days, when the Socceroos got an easy ride through the shallow waters of Oceania where they saw off some Pacific minnows and then beat up on New Zealand before coming to grief at the hands of a battle-hardened South American or Asian rival: Argentina (narrowly) before the 1994 Cup, Iran (heartbreakingly) before 1998, Uruguay (disappointingly) before 2002. It was that cycle of frustration which made the win over Uruguay in November 2005 such a night of national joy and elation. The move to Asia in 2006 was supposed to end all that tension and doubt. By joining the Asian Football Confederation, Australia would get a standard qualification path to the World Cup: a series of home and away games in league format would ensure that even if there was a slip-up or an off night it would not necessarily prove fatal to the Socceroos' hopes of progress. That's how it looked at the start. Under Dutchman Pim Verbeek - a man not always admired here for his pragmatic approach - the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup in South Africa with a couple of games to spare. Four years later it was much closer when German Holger Osieck was in charge and the Socceroos had well and truly entered what Sir Alex Ferguson called ''squeaky bum time'', only ensuring qualification for Brazil 2014 with a Josh Kennedy header seven minutes from time to get a 1-0 win over Iraq in front of more than 80,000 fans in Sydney. Things were even tighter for 2018 as the Socceroos could not nail down one of the four guaranteed places open to Asian nations for direct qualification. This was a reflection both on the level of the Socceroos - who were now nowhere near as strong as the "golden generation" team of 2006 and 2010 - and the improvements made by Asian nations. It took Ange Postecolgou's men two nail-biting play-offs - an extra-time win over Syria which could have ended disastrously had Omar Al Soma's last-gasp free kick gone in rather than hit the post, and a more comfortable victory over Honduras - to seal their place in Russia. While the expectations are that Australia will make it through their first-phase Asian qualifying group with relative ease - opponents Kuwait, Jordan, Chinese Taipei and Nepal hardly look to be world beaters - there will undoubtedly be a banana skin or two along the way. Australia's Aziz Behich and Jordan's Yousef Al-Rawashdeh: Jordan have been troublesome for the Socceroos. Australia's Aziz Behich and Jordan's Yousef Al-Rawashdeh: Jordan have been troublesome for the Socceroos.AP Australia have struggled against Jordan, particularly in away games - the Socceroos lost 2-0 in Amman in 2015 and 1-0 in the UAE in the Asian Cup earlier this year - so nothing can be taken for granted against them. While Kuwait on paper look to be some way behind Australia, the Kuwaitis did get their campaign off to a flying start with a 7-0 win over Nepal on Friday. Arnold and the Socceroos cannot afford slip-ups. FFA's future funding and the halo effect for the game of a World Cup qualification depends on them getting it right. All the way to Qatar.”

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/sport-thought-arnold-socceroos-can-t-afford-slip-ups-on-world-cup-path-20190906-p52osc.html

that's like reading a text message from a baby boomer