Watch out, Lions: The Group of Death is coming to Kallang
Singapore’s journey to the 2026 World Cup is a daunting one with South Korea, China and Thailand lying in wait
FIRST, the good news. Earlier this week, the Singapore men’s football team made it to the second round of qualifying for the 2026 Fifa World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup.
This after they overcame minnows Guam – a semi-professional side that’s ranked a lowly 201st in the world by the sport’s governing body Fifa – by an aggregate score of 3-1 over two legs.
The bad news, however, is that Singapore find themselves in the so-called Group of Death for the next stage of their journey towards the World Cup. In all honesty, it’s the most difficult set of opponents that coach Takayuki Nishigaya could have imagined playing against.
It will take nothing short of a miracle if the 157th-ranked Lions can somehow escape from a section that includes Asian powerhouses South Korea; the seven-time Asean champions Thailand; and China, a side that has seen better days but won’t be complete pushovers.
Football fans in Singapore, meanwhile, are licking their chops at the tantalising prospect of watching the Lions pit their wits against these formidable teams at the National Stadium in Kallang over the next few months.
South Korea
Singapore couldn’t have asked for a tougher assignment to open the second qualifying round on Nov 16. The Lions will kick things off with a trip to South Korea where they will go toe-to-toe with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Lee Kang-in, Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae and Wolves striker Hwang Hee-chan.
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On the same day Singapore laboured to that 1-0 win over Guam in the village of Dedeco, South Korea barely broke a sweat as they swatted aside Vietnam 6-0 in a friendly match in Suwon.
Ranked 26th in the world, South Korea are managed by German football legend Jurgen Klinsmann, who took charge in February this year. The comfortable victory over Vietnam was his third straight win after beating Saudi Arabia last month and Tunisia a week ago.
South Korea are perennial finalists at the World Cup, having appeared in the last 10 editions from 1986 to 2022. The Taegeuk Warriors co-hosted the tournament with Japan in 2002, which was where they produced their best performance to date by finishing fourth.
The return match in Kallang, which is the fixture that fans in Singapore will be looking forward to the most, will be held on June 6 next year.
Thailand
The two most successful teams in South-east Asia will square off as Singapore face familiar foes Thailand.
The War Elephants have won the Asean Football Federation championship a record seven times, most recently in 2022. Singapore, on the other hand, are the next best side with four titles. The last time they won the regional tournament was in 2012 by defeating none other than Thailand.
Getting a positive result against the Thais is perhaps Singapore’s best hope of getting some points in the bag. That won’t be an easy task, however, given that the Lions have lost their last six meetings with Thailand.
The Thais have never made it to the World Cup proper, having reached to the final round of qualification twice, in 2002 and 2018, and coming up short each time. Their last two games were friendlies, an embarrassing 0-8 defeat to Georgia on Oct 13 and a 1-1 draw with Estonia on Oct 18.
Singapore will host the first game against Thailand on Nov 21, with the return fixture to take place in Bangkok on June 11.
China
Ranked 80th in the world, China are not regarded as one of Asia’s top teams at the moment, although they do at least have the proud honour of reaching the World Cup finals once, back in 2002. They fared poorly at that tournament, losing all three games – to Turkey, Brazil and Costa Rica – and failing to score a single goal.
China’s football association in 2016 announced a grand vision to transform the country into a “world football superpower” by 2050, but that plan seems next to impossible given the team’s recent performances on the pitch.
They lost to South Korea in the Asian Games quarter-finals earlier this month, and on Monday they tasted defeat at home again to Uzbekistan.
The current team, managed by Serbian Aleksandar Jankovic, features a number of foreign-born players who have benefited from a fast-track naturalisation process. They include former Arsenal prospect Nico Yennaris (now known as Li Ke), ex-Everton defender Tyias Browning (Jiang Guangtai) and Brazil-born Elkeson (Ai Kesen).
Singapore and China will play each other in a double-header in the space of five days next March. The Lions host the first game on Mar 21, with the return leg in China on Mar 26.
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