Tonight, the Philippine national men’s football team, better known as the Azkals, kick off against Mongolia at the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City, where some 15,000 fans are expected to show their love for the country’s latest sporting idols. The home-and-away matchup against Mongolia is part of a two-leg qualifier for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup, and is the first challenge for the Azkals to build on their Cinderella run in last year’s Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup and cement their status among casual fans.

But what exactly are the two teams playing for tonight? And how would this help the Philippines claim football glory?

To start, let’s look at how the AFC classifies nations competing in football. There are three categories for national football associations: the developed associations, the developing associations, and the emerging associations. Asian football powerhouses such as Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Iran, and Australia (which counts itself as an AFC member) are classified as developed associations. In Southeast Asia, only one national association, Thailand, is listed among the developed associations.

Most of our neighbors in the Asean, meanwhile, count themselves among the developing associations: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Other countries comprising the category include Hong Kong, India, and the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, the Philippines finds itself in the emerging associations classification, along with Mongolia and other countries such as Chinese Taipei, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and our Southeast Asian neighbors Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, and Timor-Leste.

The AFC Challenge Cup is a tournament designed for emerging associations, although developing associations and even a developed association, North Korea, have also appeared in the competition. At stake in the tournament is a spot in the AFC Asian Cup, the most prestigious international football tournament in the region – a competition for whose final tournament the Philippines has never qualified.

But before being able to enter the qualifying round of the Challenge Cup, the Philippines has to get through the Mongolian “Blue Wolves” starting with the first leg tonight. Given the improvement of the Azkals with the influx of foreign-born players on the team and its momentum after the historic Suzuki Cup run, the team should be heavy favorites in this qualifier against the very lowly Mongolia team.

If the Azkals pull through against the Blue Wolves, they will join Myanmar, Palestine, and Bangladesh in the qualifying round of the Challenge Cup that starts on March 20. The top two teams in the group would enter the final tournament of the 2012 Challenge Cup. In 2009, Myanmar and Bangladesh were also in the same group, and qualified for the 2010 edition of the Challenge Cup final tournament.

For a low-ranked team like the Philippines, the Challenge Cup is a great chance to crash the Asian Cup and make history, and the match tonight represents the first step in a very long road to Asian football glory. But perhaps more importantly, winning against Mongolia would give the Azkals an opportunity to play in a lot of matches, stay in the public consciousness, and win not just football games, but Filipino hearts.