Important fixtures for this year: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification 23.3 Iraq v Australia 28.3 Saudi Arabia v Iraq 13.6 Iraq v Japan 31.8 Thailand v Iraq 5.9 Iraq v UAE Russia 2018 will be hard to reach, but nothing is impossible if you look at our past. The preparations for the 2019 Asian Cup will start here as well, and a big test is awaiting for our national team. We trust in you Iraq!
Good in terms of qualification, bad as it brings the prestige down of making a World Cup. Iraq has a good chance to make World Cups if Asia gets 8.5 spots. We are surely among the top 8 teams in Asia.
Good for us. Bad for the world cup from an entertainment perspective. Group stages will be very defensive and ugly football. We will probably qualify as long we we play to our real level.
On the other hand, it could be entertaining for a team like Costa Rica(last WC) or Iceland(last Euros) to appear. Underdog stories are the most entertaining and not uncommon in these large tournaments.
That's true. I'm not entirely opposed to increasing the teams at the tournament, but it needs to be done intelligently. The plan right now is the have a group stage with 3 teams in each group which means teams will have 2 games before going out/advancing. This will encourage teams to play defensive and ugly football and fewer teams will be willing to take risks since one loss could mean they're out. We also saw how growing the euros hurt the entertainment. The last euros was one of the worst I've ever seen. Without the expansion and change to the format, Portugal would have been out in the group stages.
Worst thing is that even the Asian Cup is expanded to 24 teams. It's as if they are trying to involve more Asian teams in the international competitions.. Could benefit Iraq though. We all know how we struggle to qualify, but as soon as we are in the competition and have a little bit of stability, we can do much (ex. 2007 Asian Cup, 2015 Asian Cup and in some way even the 2009 Confed Cup and 2016 Olympics)
Iraq will play Syria on 18 March in Teheran. Funny fact: We played them at the same day last year under Alwan. Lost that game 1-0.
Any news on the ban? last thing I heard is that FIFA didn't make it to the meeting or something like that.
Friendly with Syria reportedly cancelled. We're going into this round of WCQ's with no friendlies planned at all. The FA have one month to get a friendly or two. Even though we are 99.99% out of these qualifiers, I rather not get destroyed again by Australia. The players deserve better than this.
And people will blame the coach for this in case we lose.. ********ing useless federation. I hate all of them. I want us to fight for the playoff spot, as long as we are still in the race. No matter what, we should play at our best every remaining game.
We have a friendly with Lebanon now. In other news, Egypt's 44 year old goalkeeper got them through the AFCON semi finals in the penalty shootout. An example that experience is always good to have in any team.
Cancelled because of disagreements. What a joke this FA is.. We will get nowhere with those fools in charge
We need him at the level that he was before. He's been poor for almost two seasons now. I hope Osama Rashid gets a call. I prefer him over Yaser. He hasn't had a proper chance in the team, especially after his phenomenal season with Farense. Radhi doesn't seem to rate him for some reason.
Agreed, however I think he's much better than the likes of Amjad Attwan or Mahdi Kamil, so he definitely has to be included if he behaves. Osama got his chance last summer against Qatar, but he disappointed big time and after moved to Bulgaria, where he had a poor season. That's why Radhi decided to exclude him.
"I think I shouldn't have gone to the Qatar game this past August. I was at home for 2 months training by myself. That is a huge difference than when training with a team. But I went because it's hard to refuse to play for your country. Now that I think about it, it would have been better for me to stay at home, but if I made that decision at the time I think a lot of people would have blamed me for not wanting to play for Iraq. So I went there and was totally out of form. I think I played the worst 45 minutes of my life. I hoped the coach would understand the situation." ^ Osama Rashid talking in an upcoming interview with SoccerIraq
Osama has been unlucky in his career, even playing as an amateur during the Asian Cup!! I think now is his best chance to make impact in the national team. We badly need a midfielder like him in the team. I also hope Yaser will be given a second chance. No matter how bad he behaved, we lack quality now in the NT. I can't believe we started Amjad Attwan in an important qualifier. That just shows there is no depth in the current squad. Even though we are 99% out of the qualifiers, I still want us to fight till the last matchday. We are no walkovers
That was a single friendly for Osama. He was too good in Portugal for him to be excluded after one friendly. There is no way that Radhi is justified in excluding him. Either way, he must be in the team for the upcoming games. A midfield with him, Saad and an in-form Yaser is excellent on paper.
This should be his last chance. Too many problems are caused by him. No room for primadonnas on this team - especially when the primadonna has nothing to be arrogant about.
Iraq's 37-man squad for World Cup qualifiers with Australia & Saudi Arabia next month in full. pic.twitter.com/tnuXAE63ic— Hassanin Mubarak (@hassaninmubarak) February 12, 2017 Ayman, Osama Rashid, Ali Faez are left out. Meanwhile Ali Akla (an amateur player) is included, and the likes of Ali Bahjat and Osama Ali recalled. I don't know what is going through Shnaishel's mind but I'm starting to lose my confidence in him.