Still just a training game. Brazil won't want to get any injuries so soon before the actual tournament begins. Simply getting a draw against Brazil will be a monumental achievement for our team. They will not want to disappoint their fans in their own stadium.
Highlights from the Brazil - Japan friendly. Brazil was toying with Japan all game. First half could have easily been 4 or 5-0 in Brazil's favour. Their front three is not only extremely talented, but they also link up very very well. They are going to tear us apart, and we will need Fahad Talib in top form if we are to stand any chance. Our defense needs to be airtight. We'll have to park the bus and hope for a good counter attack, otherwise it will be a bloodbath.
That is if Fahad Talib will be on goal. It's 50/50. It concerns me that we have Mohammed Hameed in the squad. My concern is the defence, with guys like Natiq and Nadhim in the team.
If it's mohammed hameed in net, then we have zero chance at all. I don't know how that guy has managed to make a career as a goalkeeper.
Fahad deserves to be the starter he performed really well in the qualifiers. Hameed has made too many mistakes to even be considered.
Trying to guess the starting 11. Could it be something close to this? -------------------------Fahad Talib------------------------- -------M.Nadhim-------S.Natiq-------A.Ibrahim------- A.Mahawi----S.Abdulameer---A.Attwan---A.Adnan ----------------A.Hisny--------------H.Tariq-------------- ----------------------M.Abdulraheem----------------------
I think they wont go with 3 at the back, and instead have a back 4 of Mahawi, Ali Faez, Ahmed Ibrahim and Ali Adnan, and add Mahdi Kamil or Bashar Rasen to the midfield. Theres also a big chance that Mohammed Hameed starts in goal which could be a disaster for us. This first game against Denmark is crucial. We need 3 points here if we want to get out of the group.
http://www.iraqi-players.com/?p=10998 This is ridiculous.. Ali Adnan will maybe play as a central defender? He is a LB, not a winger nor centreback. Oh, and I made a thread for the Denmark game.
To be honest you can never trust website like these. We will just have to wait for the game and see the lineup. I don't see why everybody is hating is on Mohammed hammed
Personally I trust in Shahad's judgement. If he says Ali can play as a central defender and he's convinced of it then he should do just that. The problem with our NT managers is that none of them think outside the box and that hurts our national team. For instance I'd like to see Dhurgham as a DM someday and Ali Adnan as a LB for the NT.
The problem with Hameed is his ridiculous inconsistency. I don't think he's as bad a goalkeeper as everyone says he is. If you watch the Iraqi league, you will know that in the 12/13 season he was outstanding for the majority of the season and is capable of making really top class saves. The problem is he is just as prone to making embarrassing mistakes which change the whole game. Even though he was great in the 12/13 season, towards the end of the season he made crucial mistakes against Arbil and Zawraa which almost cost Shorta the league title. I remember also he made awful mistakes for Iraq against Saudi Arabia in an Asian Cup qualifier, and he made a horrible mistake in the AFC Cup for Shorta where he let the ball through his legs which caused them an embarrassing loss to a Palestinian club. Not to mention the Asian Cup third place match where he was downright terrible and cost Iraq a bronze medal. At times he can be a good keeper, even great, but far too often he makes massive mistakes. No keeper who makes crucial mistakes as often as Hameed does should be anywhere near a national team setup and I don't think he deserves to be in this Olympics squad or any future national squad at all.
Hameed also has terrible handling skills in general, he makes some good reflex saves sometimes but it doesn't cut it at this level. He is too prone to mishandling the ball and making stupid mistakes. After that iraq game vs uae I don't want to see him near any iraqi team again.
So did we waste a overaged player on him? Wait wtf I just read an article stating that we have more than 3 overaged players https://ahdaaf.me/2016/08/02/iraq-olympic-team-profile/?cbg_tz=420
It's because some of our players supposedly fake their ages and pretend they are younger than they actually are in order to play in youth tournaments. According to the official records, Hameed is an under 23 player but in reality he is probably older than that. However, as long as there is no solid proof that Iraq use age fraud, there is nothing anyone can really do about it.
I have never seen Mohammed Hameed prove that he's actually a talented goalkeeper. At the U20 world cup comentators would call him an unconventional goakeeper which is not a good thing. He doesn't have the right technique to be a proper goalkeeper. In the 2014 world cup qualifiers he let in an embarassing goal against KSA, for Al Shorta he makes an absolutely ridiculous mistake and lets in a goal, at the Asian cup in 2015 he makes an amateur mistake causing Ahmed Ibrahim to get a red card + a penalty call against us. He's built a career on nothing. To top it all off, he's overage. Every "achievement" he's had as a player playing for Iraq has been against players younger than him.
The thing is, every time they test the players its negative and they aren't overage. In fact Nigeria's youth team just got banned.