The offical 18th Gulf Cup of Nations 2007 Thread [R]

Will take part from Jan 18-30 2007 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Group A:

UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Yemen

Group B:

Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain


Group B is defenitly the Group of Death.

List of the Winners
Kuwait 9 Times
Iraq 3 Times
Saudi Arabia 3 Times
Qatar 2 Times

Iraq so Far is the Best 2nd team in the Gulf Cup after Kuwait.
this is the 18th Gulf Cup.. but Iraq won the Gulf Cup 3 times from 6 participating.

why Iraq didn't play the other 11 Cups?
we didn't participated the First 3 Cups. Withdrawn from 2 Cups...then
Iraq Banned for Playing this Tournament for 15 Years Because Iraq-Kuwait war

while the best 3rd team is Saudi Arabia won it 3 times from 16 participating

And the fact, that Saudi Arabia won only one game against Iraq (that was in 1986 when Iraq played with its B-Team) and lost four games:

1976: Iraq 7-1 Saudi Arabia
1979: Iraq 2-0 Saudi Arabia
1984: Iraq 4-0 Saudi Arabia (after that game Zagallo was fired)
1986: Iraq 1-2 Saudi Arabia (Iraq played with its B-Team)
1988: Iraq 2-0 Saudi Arabia

FCMB, are you Iraqi?

No, but I´m intrested in Iraqi football.

Hope IRAQ preforms better than the previouse gulf cup, wish em all the best

Who cares about this pointless tournament?

For us it will be Preparing for the Asian Cup 2007
we will use new Faces and I hope our Coach will call the 2006 Olympic Players.

and Funny thing HiJazzey in Gulf Cup 16 or 17 your Officials said the Gulf Cup important than the Asian Cup and the World Cup to them because its Special for Gulf people.

I'd say that Gulf cup matches are more competitive than Asian Cup matches but I won't consider a regional occasion more important that a continental one.

anyways, It appears to me that Saudis do not care about this competition because they just gave up to catch up with us... it will take them 12 years to just match our record

I would have said that Kuwait is going to claim its tenth title until last week... Mihai Stoichita got sacked by the Kuwaiti FA as he apparently got better contracts by two gulf nation FA's as usual... also, South Africa showed interest in the manager so all of a sudden he became careless about his position in Kuwait! so **** him, I am sure we can do better without him, it will take time though... and the Gulf cup is going to start less than a month from now... so Kuwait needs to be lucky to pass the group stage.

p.s. Kuwait has always won this cup when they were not favourites... so who knows, let's just hope

Games:

17. Jan 2007 UAE vs. Oman; Kuwait vs. Yemen
18. Jan 2007 Iraq vs. Qatar; KSA vs. Bahrain

20. Jan 2007 Oman vs. Kuwait; UAE vs. Yemen
21. Jan 2007 Bahrian vs. Iraq; Qatar vs. KSA

23. Jan 2007 Yemen vs. Oman; UAE vs. Kuwait
24. Jan 2007 Iraq vs. KSA; Qatar vs. Bahrain


I found a list about the best goalscorers of this tournament:

1. Jassim Yaqoub (Kuwait) scored 18 goals
2. Hussein Saeed (Iraq) scored 17 goals
3. Majed Abdullah (KSA) scored 17 goals
4. Jassim Al Houwaidi (Kuwait) scored 14 goals
5. Faisal Al Dakhil (Kuwait) scored 14 goals
6. Mansoor Muftah (Qatar) scored 13 goals

hmm.. after Iraq withdrawn from one of the tournaments.... they annulled Iraq results and the scorers, unfortunately in that Tournament Hussain Saaed scored 5 Goals

Yes that was in 1982, he scored two against Bahrain and each one against Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman. Do you know why Iraq withdrew from the 1982 tournament?

mm.. I have no Idea.. you know alot of Iraq football very nice..
where are you from?

Thanx.
I´m from Lebanon.

Nice to see more Lebanese members here

Our FA (and media) say a lot of BS. Another you hear a lot when the gulf cup is on is the whole brotherly crap. But that doesn't mean we like to lose.

I always love to follow the Gulf Cup. I think I might acctually head out to a few games.

Really? The standard of football is always sub-zero. It's "3ak" , not football.

No man, last time in Qatar there were some really good games. Im hoping for an exciting one this time around.

Best goalkeepers in the Gulf Cup;

Humood Sultan (Bahrain) the player who played most matches for his country in the Gulf Cup... he was chosen as best GK of the 1976, 1990 and 1992 Gulf Cup tournaments. He was also chosen as Asia's best goalkeeper in 1994. He played as first option GK for Bahrain between 1975 (He was only 15 ) until he resigned in 1995.

Ahmad Al-Trabelsi (Kuwait) or "The Giant" as Kuwaitis called him, the only GK not to concede any goals for an entire tournament in 1974. lost the final of 1976 Asian cup final to hosts Iran but won the Asian Cup in Kuwait in 1980. he also helped the team to qualify to the WC in 1982 to become the first Arab team to qualify to the WC from the Asia. He helped Kuwait to qualify to the quarter-final of the summer olympics of 1980 when they lost against the host nation USSR 2-1.

Raad Hammoudy (Iraq) he played for his country in three Gulf Cup tournaments and was chosen as best GK in GC1979. I attended his last international match against Kuwait in 1987 Until today, Kuwaitis consider him as the most difficult GK to score against. He left Iraq in 1989 and refused to explain why he did... he returned in 2003 after Saddam Hussein was removed. Raad Hammoudy helped Iraq qualify to the WC in 1986 in Mexico.

Mohsen Mesabbeh (UAE) "The Spider" as Emaratis call him, the best GK ever produced by UAE, German newspaper described him as "Superman" before the West Germany - UAE match in Italia 1990 as he played a vital role in making UAE qualify to the WC finals in 1990. he was chosen as best GK in the CG in 1994 conceding only one goal. He also helped UAE climb to the final of the Asian Cup in 1996 when they lost after a penalty shoot-out to Saudi Arabia.

Mohammad Al-Deaie (KSA) Asia's GK of the twentieth century... helped Saudi Arabia solve the Gulf Cup puzzle in 1994 to win it for the first time. played in 4 WCs for his country, and won the Gulf Cup with his country 3 times.

These are the Stadiums:

Al Zayed Sports Center



Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium



Al Nuheyyan Stadium

FIFA World Ranking of the participants [December 2006]

58 - Qatar
64 - Saudi Arabia
72 - Oman
78 - Kuwait
83 - Iraq
87 - United Arab Emirates
97 - Bahrain
141 - Yemen

After the 17th Gulf Cup (in Qatar), I became more interested towards the tournament. Qatar managed the last tournament very nicely. They had very good stadiums, and the quality of football was good for almost all 8 particapants. It was also the first Gulf Cup tournament to host 8 teams, and have knockout group stages.

The Al-Sadd stadium was spectacular. It was designed specifically for football. It has no running track around it, which made it look very "European".

Hopefully this tournament would go well.

Hello Guys… I want to share this with you

Do you agree with Akram Salman.. to try new Faces in this Cup?
It's eventually just a preparing for Iraq to the Asian Cup 2007.

Why not, you these are all good young players, and your tough group is a very good preperation for the Asian Cup. And who knows, maybe you can win this cup.