We should be good in terms of strikers. Muhannad will be there and he's been very good recently. Then there is Aymen Hussein, Sherko, Abdul Qader Tareq all of whom are talented and can score goals for us. Don't forget about Ali Adnan, Yaser Kasim and Ali Husni, who are also capable of scoring goals. Younis would have been nice to have since he can bring a morale boost, but we'll be perfectly fine without him. I think the final wildcard player should be Osama Rashid or Walid Salim.
I don't agree with this choice. We simply don't need him. Where will he play? He's not better than Ali Husni, and Ali Adnan will be the best player on the team. I'd hate to see him take the place of someone like Sherko or Abdul Qader Tareq. Our wingers are good and Justin has been very average whenever he's played as an attacking mid or as a second striker. I just don't see how he would fit into the team.
Ali Adnan is a LB, not a winger. Abdul-Qadir Tariq is a striker, not a winger. Justin is a good player and he deserves it to play in the Olympics. Husni can play right wing and Meram at the left wing.
I don't understand why you seem to not like Meram. He was our best attacking player in the 2014 Gulf cup and it's hard to judge him based on the Asian cup appearance considering MLS season had ended and he was struggling for match fitness (as you could tell by him not completing 90 mins). Also, he was great against the first Congo match and the away Thailand match (our hardest opponent in the group). Keep him in mind that he's only played for Iraq for just over a year and he was thrown into the Asian cup team with little experience or game time with the NT so it was all a new experience for him that he learnt. Just think you're being harsh with your constant Meram criticism where there are other players that deserve it faaaaar more.
Ali Adnan plays as a winger for Iraq and a wing back for Udinese which is not very different from being a left winger. Ali is a much better player than Justin. He is our starting LW and Dhurgham is our starting LB. It's been that way for more than a year now, there is no reason to expect things to change, especially given how well Ali Adnan and Dhurgham have been playing on the left side. Ali Husni can play RW, but if Ali Adnan was to play at LB, then I'd rather Ali Husni at LW instead of Justin. Justin can't play on the right since he loves to cut in with his right foot to take shots. So given the fact that there is no room on the wings for him, the only other option for him is to play as a second striker, which means he'd be taking a spot from either Sherko or Abdul Qader Tareq which is not fair to them. His inclusion in the team makes no sense at all.
I don't hate him. I like him as a player, but I don't think he fits the national team, and I don't understand this adoration fans have for him when he has done absolutely nothing for the national team. If a coach doesn't call him up for a friendly, fans go insane, but nobody cares that Sherko has been neglected by Iraqi football for years. He's treated like a superstar, when he not much more than a utility player for an MLS club. The 2014 gulf cup was one competition more than 2 years ago, where everyone on the team was terrible. With your examples, that leaves us with 5 good games out of 17, with 4 of those 5 being friendlies. I don't agree with the argument that he was thrown into the team with no experience. Ahmed Yasin and Yaser both showed their quality in the first games they played for Iraq and they've been at a consistent level since their first games until now. Osama Rashid as well. Justin came in and had the benefit of easing himself in with the gulf cup and a few friendlies before his first test at the asian cup, and he was disappointing there. Players with real quality will show it in their first 3-4 games. Name anyone of our better players right now and you'll see that they shined from the first few games they had.
He's not good enough for Europe. He thrives when he has space to move. The moment you take that away from him, he becomes ineffective. He'd get destroyed in the premier league. There's a reason why you don't see many players move from MLS to top european leagues.
But again, it's very harsh to say he has done absolutely nothing for the team when he hasn't been given a proper consistent chance with the team. He wasn't even picked in the two previous matches and look how pathetic we played. No way we would play worse with Meram in the side. Justin did show his quality in his first 3-4 games though, that's why i brought up the Gulf cup 2014 tournament because he immediately showed us how his quality and potential. The fact you just admitted it was already a poor team actually helps Justin's case because he was performing in a team with little inspiration. He would do better with a team with far better spirit and management. The 5 games I mentioned were just off the top of my head and I just gave you a (valid) reason why he wasn't at his best at the Asian cup. 1) I don't think he was 100% match fit and 2) he barely completed 90 minutes. The games were he started were real physical and intense tests against Japan and Iran. Against Japan, every attacking player was useless so lets not just pick on Meram. If we are going to base his Iraqi career on the Asian cup then lets just call Adnan a flop considering he did nothing in the Asian cup (and we all know this but we didn't rule him out completely). I'm not saying Meram is world class or the next saviour but the way you talk about him(even from the AlIraqi days), you make it seem like he is an awful player and there is a huge gulfing class between him and the other wingers we have. For starters I do think Yasin is better but the difference is not huge. I've seen Yasin have poor games and there are still aspects of his game where he needs to improve in massively. Husni? Come on, the difference between him and Meram is not huge. It makes sense to bring one of our best expat players to the Olympics and giving him more experience. And using MLS as an excuse to doubt his ability to perform in top European leagues? in that case lets doubt Husni considering he plays in a far weaker league than Meram. But again, I'm not saying Meram is PL worthy but the guy definitely has abilities. As you said, he thrives when he has space, he has tricks and skills to move past players and keep possession.
The difference between Ali Adnan and Justin, is that we had already seen how good Ali can be before the Asian Cup. He was phenomenal before his second season in Turkey. He had a bad year, and now he's great again. Justin on the other hand, had a good few games in the gulf cup 2014, and that's it. Showed nothing until the congo friendlies, then had another good game against Thailand after a couple more anonymous showings. He has started in 8 of his last games and has yet to show much for us. As for the last couple of games that he missed, I really don't see how he would fit into the team? He does not deserve to bench Ali Adnan, who IMO was by far our best player in those two games. He can't play as a right winger, and he struggles in the middle. Our problem wasn't that we were missing Justin, the problem was that our midfield wasn't creating enough, and the forwards were very wasteful. The difference between Meram and someone like Husni might not be huge, but Ali is younger, more effective and more versatile. Those are enough reasons for me to take Husni over Justin every time. On the wings we have Ali Adnan, Ahmed Yasin and Ali Husni, all of whom are better than Justin and more versatile. This leaves Justin as a player who is good to have on the bench as an impact sub, which is more or less his role right now in the team. I would absolutely doubt Ali Husni's ability to play in a league like the PL. He's not good enough for that level of football, just like Justin. However, Ali can move up the leagues and gain experience. He has time unlike Justin who is in his prime right now. Ali is better right now and has a higher ceiling, so it bothers me when fans go crazy for Justin, but ignore some of our other talented players who deserve recognition.
I can agree with that most of that now. I will give Husni credit when it's due but I wouldn't be upset if Meram got dropped for the Olympics spot in favour of Husni or if Meram gets picked instead of Husni because they are both players capable of causing problems to the opponents. That has been my point all along, Meram is a good enough choice to have in our squad. All we have of his Iraqi career is a few respectable friendly showings/gulf cup 2014 and a world cup qualification where he has scored two goals so far). The negative arguments can be countered IMO. Since the Thailand game, how many games has he played? I don't think he has played for us since November. He got subbed too soon against Vietnam (away, after 45 mins) so needed more time and in the Asian cup 2015, you could understand why he wasn't at his fully best considering the lack of preparation & game time he had. As I said, the MLS season ending didn't help his match fitness. BTW this was his sub appearance against Jordan in the Asian cup. Look at the piece of good footwork/trickery around 1:30 - 1:36. Not just that part of the game but I thought he did well as a sub in that game. Didn't do much wrong, played sensible passes and did everything right (including giving his teammates an option to pass to so he was active in the game).
Seeding for the Olympics have been published today. Iraq is in pot 2. Pot 1: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Japan Pot 2: Nigeria, Korea Rep., Honduras, Iraq Pot 3: Sweden, Fiji, Portugal, South Africa Pot 4: Algeria, Columbia, Denmark, Germany What group do you guys prefer? I would say Japan,Fiji,and Denmark
Japan is in the same confederation as us, so that's not possible. Mexico - Iraq - Fiji and Algeria would be my preferred group.
Just wanted to say that Abdul-Ghani Shahad is doing an excellent job so far. With the Olympic team he managed to win bronze and qualify us for Rio, but he is thinking further and wants to build a strong team for the future. If he can fix the defence, anything is possible in Rio.
A theory right here is that Justin Meram was called to take Ali adnan place as a winger and Ali adnan takes dhurgham place as left back in case he doesn't recover or he can be used to rest dhurgham if he isn't 100%
I love meram, but id take yasin over him for the olympics. Hes had a nice start with AIK assisted a goal in the first league game, and played well in the 3-3 draw yesterday.