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In what is becoming an ever more annoying tradition a Palestine squad was finally revealed last night- with five days to go before the team’s match against Korea Republic. There are few surprises in the list of 25 players.
There are four players that represented Palestine in June that have not been called up. Winger Islam Batran (Safa SC/Lebanon), Midfielder Ameed Sawafta (Al-Ittihad/Libya), Defender Mohammed Saleh (unattached), and goalkeeper Mahdi Assi.
In their place there is a return for Samer Zubaida (Hilal Al-Quds) and Mahmoud Abu Warda (Al-Tahadee/Libya). Toufic Ali is selected as the team’s third choice goalkeeper with the team unable to release Abed Yasin from Sakhnin and Amr Kaddoura staying in Sweden for personal reasons.
The most notable snub is that of Mahmoud Eid who Football Palestine learned was in an expanded squad but did not make the cut. It was thought that his solid performance off the bench in the Bangladesh doubleheader would have generated more call-ups but this is the second window without the Bangkok United attacker.
There is no place for Alaa Aldeen Hassan who continues to be excluded after exploding into a tantrum after being substituted in Palestine’s 1-0 win over Bangladesh in March.
Makram Daboub has also opted not to call up Al-Gharafa’s Jamal Hamed and Ismaily’s Khaled Al-Nabris in spite of their good form with their respective clubs.
Daboub has however continued his strange practice of selecting three left backs with Samer Jondi, Mohammed Khalil, and Camilo Saldaña all included. None of the Malaysia camp participants have been excluded.
The team concluded its camp in Malaysia with a 2-1 win over Superleague side PDRM FC courtesy of goals from Tamer Seyam and Jonathan Cantillana. The rest of the squad is as follows:
