Following Palestine’s successful qualification to the 2023 Asian Cup Finals, Palestine national team manager gave an interview to Palestinian television in which he covered a range of topics. You can watch the full interview, here. Below are some of the highlights of the 30-minute discussion.
On the different qualifying format for the 2023 Asian Cup:
“The condensed format is a lot harder than the normal home and away format. Three games in a week’s time means that it is hard to recover from a bad start and you are also in a tough spot if your players are injured or out of form. With the home and away format there is time to recover from a bad start”
On the challenges of this qualification campaign:
“When we started our training camp in Turkey we had 16 players available to us- four of them were goalkeepers. There was also the challenge of the league ending early and the players of Hilal Al-Quds and Shabab Al-Khaleel participating in the AFC Cup. There were also several players who were carrying injuries that had to be dealt with. We arrived to Mongolia 48 hours before our first match. There were two factors that we struggled with first was the elevation/pollution of the city and the second was the time difference of five hours. The general rule of thumb is that you need one day of recovery for every hour of difference in order to fully adjust.”
On the Mongolia match:
“We knew that Mongolia wasn’t a great attacking team but defensively they were able to do so quite well on their home ground. Musab Al-Battat missed our training camp due to family reasons, Oday Dabbagh was injured in our last training in Turkey, Abu Warda was also not 100%. We had to rotate some players even though many came to me and specifically asked to start this match. We made the changes as a staff given these circumstances and we were able to pull out a result in the end.”
Secrets to success:
“We have a good family spirit within the team and the coaching staff and this is what helped us overcome the challenges…. Our success is not just because of me- it is a shared success between the staff and the players.”
On what’s needed going forward:
“I don’t want to mention specific names but there are certain positions were we need to find better players and then there are other positions were we need to find substitutes that have the same or similar quality as the players we currently have.”
On the August/September international window:
“This has been a big problem for us for the past eight years or so. Our level always drops because the league isn’t active and the players abroad sometimes pull out because they are trying to prove themselves at club level. Look at the results the 4-1 loss to Jordan (2013), The Peace Cup in Philippines (a shock loss to Myanmar), Iraq beat us at home 3-0, Tajikistan came to play us in Dora in 2016 and we weren’t great (1-1 draw). The same thing happened last year when we played Kyrgyzstan (1-0 loss) and Bangladesh (2-0 win).”
On players that could join the National Team:
“The most important thing is that these players be better than the ones that we already have. We are in communication with several players that play abroad- ones in Sweden and America. We were in touch with Nader El-Jindaoui and invited him to camp but he pulled out due to family reasons… We’ll call him up again and if he’s better than the players we have then he will continue with us. We also tried to call up Michel Termanini- who had a fantastic season in Kuwait- he was in our squad but they delayed the Kuwaiti Cup final and he traveled back to Sweden to get married and had to pull out.
“Shehab Qombor was called up and ready to travel- we all know about the problems he had before [a fear of flying] but injury caused him to withdraw.”
“I am happy with the performances of Nicolas Zedan and Joaquin Abdala from a technical and tactical standpoint. They did well in spite of having little time to integrate into the squad. They’ve also recently changed clubs in search of more playing time so it wasn’t easy for them. Hopefully we will see more from them going forward”
On What he’s learned from previous Asian Cup Experiences:
“In 2015 we were far worse in every possible department. Logistics, the level of the players, the preparation. It was like we were going to a big party and we were shocked by the results we suffered. 2019 was a lot better and we managed to get two draws against Syria and Jordan.”
“I learned a lot from the 2015 Asian Cup for this past qualifying campaign in Mongolia. For example, we had a problem with the food in Australia because our Palestinian players want their Palestinian food. So I arranged that we bring a chef to Mongolia to prepare food for us. A player needs training, rest, and food so the chef really helped in preserving the positive environment in the camp.”
On Preparations for the 2023 Asian Cup
“As Arabs we prefer that Qatar get awarded the hosting rights we also have the advantage of having played there for the FIFA Arab Cup. We will monitor the situation and make plans accordingly”
“As the Asian Cup will be in June next year there are certain logistical matters that could make it difficult for us we had six players join us from the Egyptian league for the past camp. They will finish the [2021/22] season in August- and maybe the next season ends late. I am not sure how much time we will get with those players ahead of the Asian Cup which could affect our preparations in terms of getting friendlies arranged.”
On goals for the 2023 Asian Cup
“We know that the goal is to get out of the group stage and into the second round. I will say this, with no exaggeration, we have a good squad and we know that with the right preparation we can go further than the second round as well.”
