Asia

Australia vs. Cameroon did not matter in any larger sense. Both teams are almost certainly eliminated from the Confederations Cup. God, it was fun though. Both teams played on the front foot, and both teams, while not being good enough to affect the international soccer paradigm very much, are good enough to do one or two cool moves before taking a heavy touch and colliding with a defensive midfielder.

The game was like the show 24: entertaining, violent, fast-paced and utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Look, here's a goal:

China has a lot of people. And a lot of money.

Germany has a lot of soccer teams. And a lot of team owners who want more money.

It's a match made in heaven.

A league in Germany's fourth tier found a novel way to add a squad for a nice, even, 20-team table — they're bringing in a team from China.

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Preview: Australia 

History and Background

Football hasn’t always been a major sport in Australia. Although the national team was formed in 1922, the country didn’t participate in the first seven World Cups. When they did decide to start participating, they failed to qualify in their first two tries — losing to North Korea in the playoffs for 1966 and Israel in ’70.

Sven-Goran Eriksson has been sacked as manager of Chinese second division club Shenzhen and has been replaced with Wang Baoshan. We know this because Shenzhen posted a poem on their website welcoming Wang as their new coach.

We are not making this up:

Eleven years ago, you led Shenzhen football and never let us down.

Nine years ago, you took over responsibilities and saved Shenzhen football.

Memories of fighting together have never gone away, and now we recall the legend.

Lionel Messi has recently unveiled his plans to personally and painstakingly design, build and operate his own theme park in Nanjing, China. It will be called the Messi Experience Park (MEP), which is infinitely lamer than Messi World, Magic Messi Kingdom or Messi's Wonderous Adventureland. With over 20 attractions on a sprawling 42,000 square meter space, the biggest question remains whether or not Mateo Messi will be old enough or tall enough to have any fun.

Former Ivory Coast and Newcastle United midfielder Cheick Tiote has passed away following a suspected heart attack while training with current club Beijing Enterprises. Tiote was only 30 years of age.

Sadly, it has been confirmed that Cheick Tiote has died in China at the age of 30. RIP.

There is no doubt that the India U17 World Cup team earned an impressive road victory this week against a strong Italian side, knocking off the hosts 2-0.

There's just one problem with the narrative that arose after the match. The India U17s didn't actually beat the Italy U17 National Team. Instead, they played and won against a team comprised of youth players from clubs in Lega Pro and Lega Pro 2 (the third and fourth tiers of Italian football, respectively).

With European league seasons winding down, summer transfer speculation has begun in earnest with what you'd expect: 

India’s National Team has never played in a World Cup, but there’s a decent chance that will change when the tournament includes 48 teams in 2026. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) currently sends four teams to the World Cup, and its fifth place team competes in a playoff with the fourth place team from CONCACAF.

When the field expands, eight teams from the AFC will directly qualify. The World Cup’s growth, coupled with the national team’s improvements, provide sufficient reasons to be optimistic about the future of Indian soccer. 

Diego Maradona has one of the more interesting coaching resumes we know of. Besides being a legandary footballer in his own right and managing the Argentina National Team for a spell, Maradona has managed Argentine clubs Racing Club de Avellaneda and Mandiyu de Corrientes and UAE-based Al-Wasl FC.

He's back now, with UAE second-division club Al-Fujairah SC.