It's good to see the Afghan soccer is getting back on track slowly. The national team participated in the last Asia Cup qualifiers and the current World Cup qualifiers (though they were eliminated immediately, if I remember it right they lost 0-12 or so vs Kyrgisztan ?) The national team has its own webpage meanwhile (I have the URL somewhere in my papers, I'll look it up) and currently many lads from Kabul are playing for Afghanistan (unlike the first games of the reformed NT, when mainly Afghans who live abroad played for the team). Has a new Afghan league been formed yet, and how is the public interest in soccer going after years of a soccer ban ?
No one ?? Come on, someone must know of the football there... We've got a few people from neighbouring countries... Please also do not mix politics in this unless it directly has influence on the soccer scene in Afghanistan. I opened this topic out of interest for the soccer there, not to have a debate on the war or current political situation.
man do af´ghans have NT?? dont mean to be rude just wondering...some internet site about that or something?
Yes, they have, as far as I know they're even one of Asia's oldest federations. Under the previous regime (won't use the name to avoid political undertone) the football team of Afghanistan was inactive, but since the war is over they re-started the NT. Still weak of course (as I said, they lost 0-12 on aggregate in their first competitive tie since returning to the Asian football scene) but I'm sure they'll grow, the NT already attracts public interest around Kaboul and the current squad contains many locals who actually live in Afghanistan (while before it were mainly Afghan refugees in Europe). I'm not sure if the domestic league has been re-installed yet.
Agfhanistan beat Kyrgyzstan (1-0? 2-0?) in preliminary qualifying for the last Asian Cup. Yes, Kyrgyzstan is really really bad (though they then turned around and beat Nepal after that defeat).
Afghanistan beat Kyrgyzstan 2-1 in the preliminaries to Asia Cup, then losing 4-0 to Nepal. Then later that year in 2003 they lost to TURKMENISTAN 11-0 away and 2-0 in Kabul in the World Cup Qualifiers. Turkmenistan are not a bad team , ranked as number 105 now, Afghanistan are ranked as 200 of 205 countries on FIFA ranking. Afghanistan could be climbing in the rankings , next matches I guess will be the SAFF championship in Pakistan, scheduled for December 2005. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Afghanistan has been invited to SAFF.
ya they do,currently ranked last place(fifa rankings).there website can be found on fifa.com->national associations->afghanistan
The only thing I know about Afghan NT is when they played a friendly against Pakistan....haha funny (but sad) story!
I thought their team got disbanded. I remember back when they formed a NT for the first time after the Taliban, they had a friendly with Italy. When the team arrived in Italy most of the players escaped the team camp and were never seen again: http://www.footballasia.com/en/regional/Central/index.asp?id=34879&sec=0&ssec=0&mth=4&yr=2004&cc=AFG
SAFF Cup 2005 in Pakistan - December GROUP A Afghanistan Maldives Pakistan Sri Lanka Afghanistan are ready to play international matches
oh my god all their players birthdate is like 1980's.......... good luck to them because they need it!!!!!!!!!!
Reason by the coach of afghanistan losing to turkeministan......... the turkeministan guys gave an old bus to transport afghan soccer players across the border with no heater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the humor doesnt stop there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When they have reached the hotel, the hotel was not booked so the players had to sleep on the FLOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! could u guys believe that
Actually, did the Afghan league already take off again? Most of the NT players will probably play in their homeland I take?
Afghanistan ready for 3 matches in SAFF cup in December Maldives (MDV) : Afghanistan (AFG) SAFF Cup 2005 07.12.2005 Sri Lanka (SRI) : Afghanistan (AFG) SAFF Cup 2005 09.12.2005 Pakistan (PAK) : Afghanistan (AFG) SAFF Cup 2005 11.12.2005
Afghanistan lost 1-9 in their first match against Maldives ! Match reports, squads and more .... http://www.indianfootball.com/specials/saffcup2005/index.html
It is great to see the Afghan NT playing football again. there first and only win was against kyg 2-1 in the asian prelim, however there last game was the WC qual against Turkmenistan, after that, the team was disbanded due to most of them running away in Italy. Those players in the site www.afghanland.com has been disbanded and a totally new team has formed for this tournement (SAFF CUP 2005). the current team players names are Afghanistan Goalkeepers: 1-Shamsuddin Amiri, 20-Hamidullah Yousufzai Defenders: 2-Ali Ahmadi, 3-Bashir Ahmad Saadat, 4-Qudratullah Hussaini, 5-Abdul Maroof Gullestani, 8-Ali Ahmad Yarzada, 14-Manochehr Azizi, 19-Islamuddin Amiri Midfielders: 6-Muhammad Salim Kohistani, 7-Sayed Maqsood, 12-Farhad Reza Khan, 13-Raza Mahmoudi, 15-Ahmed Wahid Abbasi, 17-Sayed Qasim Sharifi, 18-Sayed Bashir Azimi Forwards: 9-Hafizullah Qadami, 10-Muhammad Jalal Afshar, 11-Souraj Akhwan, 16-Mustafa Bayat Chief Coach: Klaus Staerk (Germany) After less than 3 years the team is playing a game again, this team also notched up a friendly against Tajikistan loosing 4-0, and drawing 2-2 with Tajikistan Youth team, before the first game of the Saff Cup 2005 in Pakistan. lost 9-1 Maldives and 1-0 to Pakistan, however next game in the SAFF CUP is against Sri Lanka, which would be great if the Afghans play with determination and win the match. However one of the most important points to be noted quoted by German coach Klaus "With Afghanistan still struggling for stability since return to international arena, Klaus admits even basic issues like accommodation and nutrition are a problem. Virtually none of the players has an apartment or a job. "Even nutrition is a big problem," said Klaus. "So it's difficult to get fit and achieve higher aims." hopefully the country will find stability and can continue to grow in the most popular sport in the world, as they do have the potential
Up 9 places in the FIFA ranking for December http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-Dec-2005,00.html
Next matches probably AFC Challenge Cup in Nepal against India, Chinese Taipei and Philippines. Late March !