Today, Friday, the Gulf Arab Cup kicks off its 25th session (Gulf 25) which will be hosted by Iraq in Basra until January 19 with 8 teams from the Gulf, and the eight teams have been divided into two groups where in the first includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, and the second – the teams of Kuwait, Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. The opening ceremony of the tournament will be held, after which the opening match between Iraq (the host) and Oman will take place, after which the match of our team with the Yemeni counterpart took place.
Competition in the group is expected to be fierce. In order to qualify for the semi-finals first and then the title, in light of host Iraq’s ambition to win the missing title for 34 years while Al-Akhdar hopes for a fourth title while Oman wanted to win a third title, and finally, Yemen is looking for its first title in the tournament.
Al-Akhdar participates with elements, most of them Olympic team players, in addition to some players who participated mainly with their clubs under national coach Saad Al-Shehri.
Our team went to a short camp in Riyadh before heading to Basra last Wednesday and Al Akhdar is in Gulf 25 with a good chance of winning their fourth title having previously won it in 1994, 2002 and 2003 .
The fate of Al Akhdar is facing the presence of more than one high-level athlete, led by the Iraqi national team, land owner and fans, next to Oman, a two-time title holder besides Yemen.
The path of the first circle seems difficult; Because he will face Yemen, which is easier at first, which can be a positive factor in case of a win, and a negative factor in case of a draw and defeat, especially since his second match will be with Iraq, the host country, and the third and last match will be against Oman, which could be decisive for two teams or at least one of them.
On the other hand, the Yemen national team is aiming for the title for the first time in its history, which is the goal and aspiration for which they are fighting in the tournament, even if it is difficult.
The Yemen national team, under Czech coach Miroslav Skop, in its tenth participation in the Gulf Championship will rely on a group of young players, supported by experienced players, who were selected after an external training camp in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, during which they played many friendly matches.
opening match
Iraq will face their Omani counterpart in the opening match, and Iraq is considered one of the most likely candidates for the Gulf Cup 25 title, counting on holding the championship on its soil and among its fans, having previously won the title in 1979, 1984 and 1988.
The top 25 players will be absent from Iraq in the Persian Gulf, led by Manchester United player Zidane Iqbal, Czech Slovak player Mirjas Dureski, American DC United player Muhannad Yaaz and Swiss Thun player Hiran Ahmed.
The Iraqi Spanish national team is led by Jesus Casas and is backed by a team that includes outstanding players, most notably: Ahmed Bazil, Fahd Talib, Jalal Hassan, Mustafa Nazim, Amir Al-Ammari, Durgham Ismail, Hussein Ammar, Ahmed Yassin, Hussein Jabbar , Moamel Abdel-Rida, Sherko Karim Alaa Abbas.
On the other hand, the motivation of the Omani team to win the 25th Gulf title is no less as it aims for its third title in the competition after 2009 in Oman and 2017 in Kuwait.
The Oman national team enters the tournament under the guidance of their Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic, who has learned the lesson of entering the first round at Gulf 24 in Doha.
Yemen’s participation in the Gulf 25 tournament is surrounded by many ambiguous and difficult moments, the main of which is the doubt about the ability of current players to show a high level and good results, which allow them to at least get the first victory in the history of the national team in the championships of the Gulf, Moreover, the lottery did not spare the team and put it in the same group with other teams from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Oman.
The Yemen national team has previously competed nine times in the Gulf Championships, starting with the Gulf 16 in 2003 in Kuwait, and at that time ranked last with one point, and the last of them was in the Gulf Championship 24 in Doha, and at that time he was also in last place with one point due to a draw with Iraq.