Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek, 23 August 1992: Kyrgyzstan's footballers walked out in Tashkent for their first ever match as an independent nation and lost 3–0 to Uzbekistan. Thirty-three years and eleven meetings later, that scoreline has never once gone the other way — the most recent of them a 4–0 defeat in the 2025 CAFA Nations Cup semi-final.

The Kyrgyz Football Union joined FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation in 1994, two years after that debut, and the team took its nickname, The White Falcons, from the Kyrgyz Ak shumkarlar. Matches with Tajikistan carry their own edge, sharpened more by politics and border disputes than by anything settled on the pitch, but it is Uzbekistan that has defined the rivalry in results.

Almost two decades later they reached the last four of the CAFA Nations Cup and finished fourth. Mirlan Murzayev has scored more goals for Kyrgyzstan than anyone else, 16 in 60 caps, built across spells at Dordoi Bishkek, Denizlispor and Chennaiyin FC. More recently, Joel Kojo, who qualifies through Ghanaian descent, scored a hat-trick against Chinese Taipei during qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

Urmat Abdukaimov took the team on an acting basis in July 2025, replacing Robert Prosinecki, and was confirmed as permanent head coach the following August. The team play their home fixtures at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium in Bishkek, in front of a capacity of 23,000, wearing red with white as the secondary colour. The record against Uzbekistan stands untouched since that first afternoon in Tashkent.