Where would he play? No way he deserves to start ahead of Ali Husni or Ali Adnan, and Muhannad/Sherko/Abdul Qader Tareq are better options up front.
Playing well in MLS is completely different from playing in an international competition against teams like Brazil and Denmark. He never gets enough space to move the ball when he's played behind the strikers for Iraq. The only place where he's been effective is on the left, and we already have Ali Adnan who is much better than him for that position.
Adnan will play LB at the olympics almost certainly now. Rizespor are refusing to let dhurgham play at the olympics. We are lacking in wingers... An ahmed yasin or meram sounds nice now, but that can't happen unfortunately
Ali Husni and Sherko should do the job. I'm confident that Ali will be very good for us, but I'm not as sure about Sherko since he hasn't played much first team football for a long time, and when he did, he was terrible. I agree that Ahmed Yasin or Meram would have been nice to have at this point, but you can't blame the coach for prioritizing the midfield and defense + no one could predict that Rize wouldn't let Dhurgham go. I'm also not sure if they are allowed to block him since I'm pretty sure that the Olympics are a FIFA recognized event. Barca couldn't stop Messi from going to Beijing 2008, so it's strange that Rizespor can block Dhurgham from going to Rio.
Im confident in ali husni, not as much in sherko because hes has basically not played with this group of players. On the other hand dhurgham must be an important team player at this stage for them if they don't want to release him
Humam will leave the training camp as he is going to sign for a Turkish club within a few days. Very happy to see our players leaving for Europe, instead of Qatar or KSA
Good move. He is a good fitness coach and he has a great relationship with the players. Hopefully he is treated better than he was last time he was working for out national teams.
Gonzalo is a good fitness coach and great personality, but I find it pretty strange that he refused to work with the NT, only to come back for the U-23 team (which one is more important NT or U23?) 2018 AFC U-23 Championship won't act as qualifier for the Olympics, so I think that Shahad should build a side capable of reaching the Olympics in 2020. Players born on or after 1 January 1995 are eligible. I hope he leaves out the likes of Humam and Mahdi Kamil. They had their chances, it's time for a new generation to emerge.
As far as I know, he was basically forced out of the senior team. Radhi replaced him with another fitness coach because Gonzalo was busy with the olympic team over the summer. Anyways, as of now, he hasn't been officially contacted by the FA. The only news is that Shahad wants him in his staff.
He didn't refuse to work with the national team, he wanted to stay but the FA did not send him his contract and then they hired a new fitness coach while Gonzalo was with the olympic team. So we was effectively forced out like Iraqilambo says.
Do you remeber the Cinderella story from 2004? It is featured on a new series on the Olympic Channel and is Kadhim Al-Sahir’s favourite Olympic Moment. Watch it here https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/p...ite-the-iraqi-football-team-cinderella-story/
Today Iraq played a friendly against Syria in Karbala Sports City. This was the first international being played in Karbala. Iraq won 2-0 (Ayman Hussein and Farhan Shakor were the goalscorers).
Our Asian Cup U23 campaign starts today with a match against Afghanistan, followed by Bahrain on 21 July and KSA on 23 July. Iraqia Sports will broadcast the matches.
Afghani goalkeeper was terrible. Also, I am very impressed with Aymen Hussein's technique. He had alot of space today and the result doesn't mean much, but every time I see him play, his technique in front of goal and the way he takes his shots is impressive. He really reminds me of Younis Mahmoud in alot of ways.
Afghanistani FA to lodge a complaint alleging that our players are committing age fraud. The afghanis are in the right, but I doubt anything will happen. I feel bad for them, but they can't prove anything.
Hopefully they will ban us and people in Iraq finally wake up and realize that it's hurting us in the long run.
KSA 0-0 Iraq We managed to drop points against an Olympic side with our senior team players. Saudi players will learn and continue to improve while this is the best we can deliver. This is how low we've sunk. I completely lost my interest in youth football in Iraq, because it's based on corruption and fraud.