Saad Natiq is injured and is out of the squad. That leaves us with 28 players. I would leave the following players out for sure: Sameh Saeed, Saif Salman, Mahdi Kamil, Ali Faez. I don't know about the fifth one. Maybe Nabeel Sabah
Lets see what the team has to offer tomorrow. All the players are now present except for Ali Adnan. Shneishel should start fielding his best players especially in the attack so that the players get used to each other (eg Meram and Younis).
From now on Shnaishel has to field the starting 11 he wants for the tournament to let the players get used to each other.
Sharar Haidar says that the FA is not happy with Jako because all the equipments are from China (nowadays everything is from china ) and that they have to wear the kits during the Asian cup due to contract obligations. After the Asian cup they'll try to get another sponsor. The kits look fine to me.
جلال حسن - ضرغام اسماعيل - سلام شاكر - احمد ابراهيم - مهدي كريم - احمد ياسين - سعد عبد الامير - اسامة رشيد - امجد كلف - مهدي كامل - يونس محمود Mehdi Kamil and no Meram??
There is something strange going on.... Is he so convinced of his abilities that he doesn't see the need to test out? Is he disappointed by Meram and about to drop him? I would say that this lineup is pretty much the starting 11 for the Asian Cup
الاسماء المستبعدة من قائمة منتخبنا الوطني في كاس اسيا .. نبيل صباح وسيف سلمان وسعد ناطق وسامح سعيد وعبد القادر طارق وحمادي احمد Iraqfpg It seems that Saif Salman has been punished for being sent off in the friendly.
So Mahdi Kamil and Ali Faez are better than Abdul Qadir Tariq and Hammadi Ahmad? Logical choices, because neither of them did impress me and Tariq has no international experience at all, but in my opinion I would kick Kamil and Faez out first.
Hammadi is an overrated player so i understand that he has been dropped. Abdul Qadir Tariq did impress me in the previous game but he probably didn't make it because there are better options like Younis and Meram. I think that Radhi kept Faez because he is a player that can play in multiple positions. Holding on to Mehdi Kamil is strange but we'll see what he has to offer today.
And what about Nabeel Sabah? To be honest I haven't seen him playing for a long long time. I don't know what Mahdi Kamil has to offer though..
We played a very strong first half. Radhi clearly corrected the mistakes from the first leg. There is a lot of creativity with Osama Rashid and Ahmed Yasin, Amjad Kalaf is fast and contributes a lot, the defence is stable with Salam Shaker and Ahmad Ibrahim, Jalal is keeping good, we use set pieces well. Happy to see Iraq playing well!
I don't know about the supposedly dropped players: Sameh Saeed played today... Justin Meram has not been given a fair chance so far while he is our only hope at scoring some goals. Younis is not going to do anything for us in the Asian cup. He's past it. I would pair up Younis and Meram since both have scoring instincts and can serve each other. Mehdi Kamil is worthless. Mehdi Karim is going to cause big problems for us in the Asian cup. It's unbelievable that he's still playing and what is even more baffling is that he takes the corners on both sides and not a single ball was good. Our defending is also lacking on many fronts: 3 penalties for the opposition in the friendlies so far is ridiculous. Just notice how many of Hakeem's players deserve to be in the NT and are given a chance by Sheinshel. Mehdi Kamil got a chance today and he didn't show anything. Humam came in as a sub and was disappointing. And Ali Adnan will join the team later. Imagine that at some point there were 7/8 of Hakeem's players in the starting line up .
This is all due to Hakim and the wasted time under him. I disagree about Younis. He's a big game player He will play an amazing Asian Cup and retire. Mahdi Karim's working rate is very good for his age. I don't know if Sameh Saeed / Walid Salem could do better. I agree about Mahdi Kamil.
There was a friendly scheduled between UZB vs IRQ today, anyone know if the game went ahead? I can't see the score line anywhere. Thanks.
By the way I really hope that they renew Radhi's contract after the Asian Cup because I think he can do big things if we give him time. He wants to pick the players he wants. I'm sure that he would have called up a player like Zana Allée because this coach believes expatriate players will benefit our national team. For the Asian Cup I think we will come out of our group. Our squad is strong enough to beat the likes of Jordan and Palestine, but we still have obstacles to overcome. Our last friendly against Iran is the final one. At this point Ali Adnan, Yaser Kasim and Justin Meram should start.
في تصريح خاص لمعرض الكرة العراقية المصور المدير الإداري باسل كوركيس : المستبعدين الستة هم: مهدي كريم ، سيف سلمان، عبد القادر طارق،نبيل صباح، حمادي أحمد، سعد ناطق .... والبقية ال٢٣ سيغادرون لتمثيل العراق في امم اسيا Mehdi Karim???!
We still don't know why Mehdi Karim was dropped. He got (by far) the most minutes in the previous friendlies only to be dropped at the end. No decent chance was given to the other RB's to prepare them properly. Very strange decision. Was Shneishel that shocked by his performance?
I think so.. How did Walid Salem and Sameh Saeed play in your opinion? Maybe he will try out another player as RB.
Sameh Saeed played for a limited period, i think only the last 20 minutes of the previous game. Don't know why this guy is in the NT. I don't know about Walid Salem. I didn't watch the game against uzb in wich he started. I think he clearly has the advantage over Sameh but for some reason (maybe he had a light injury or was fatigued) Shneishel didn't gave him playing time in the last game. I saw some statements from the technical staff of the team and they clearly mentioned that multiple players are not fit yet. I think that's why Shneishel is still experimenting and gradually is preparing players (to prevent injuries).
Apparently the Shorta players were not fit at all due to all the postponements and problems with Shorta administration. I think this is true. If only Dhurgham could play as RB... Maybe Ali Faez could impress. I don't know. I think we should field Walid Salem instead of trying out.
Some important things from an interview with Radhi Shneishel (Iraqfpg) - Justin Meram is an important player but the hasn't trained since the gulf cup so we want to prepare him gradually - Younis Mahmoud, Justin Meram, Ahmed Yasin and Walid Salem are all not fit. - I (Shneishel) will think about continuing with the NT in case we show a good performance in the Asian cup. In case of bad results i will clear the way for another coach. This pretty much gives the answers to our questions. I respect this guy more than ever for his willingness to clean the mess caused by the previous coach and putting his name on the line.