It looks like Mokhtar “The Dinosaur” Al-Talili has got the Olympic Team playing competent football for the first time in seven years. Al-Fursan faced their Jordanian counterparts last night in Al-Ram and put on a show for the supporters and IOC Chairman Jacques Rogge.
Rogge toured the Occupied West Bank before the match and got to see first hand some of the struggles Palestinian athletes face. His statement regarding the matter was positive but fell short of the threat UEFA President Michel Platini to sanction Israel if the incidents continued.
For those of you lucky enough to have access to Palestine’s Satellite Channel you may have caught the game. If you didn’t here is what you missed:
1. Both Goalscorers Ashraf Nu’man and Eyad Abu Gahrqud are lighting up the West Bank Premier League. A newcomer to keep your eye one is Balata’s Abdelhamid aka Abu Habeeb.
2. Nadim Barghouthi and Ra’fit Eaid could push Hatem Karim and Abdullah Dheeb for a starting position alongside Abdelatif Bahdari (assuming Jarun is not called up and no other options in the Diaspora are explored)
3. The FA and Olympic Committee which were once broke is now flush with cash and is building themselves a fancy new HQ.
4. Both teams went home with phallic silverware. I don’t know why we are handing out silverware…
5. You can access Highlights of this game on our YouTube page.
What’s Next:
Palestine Olympic team will be busy over the next couple of months starting with November’s Asian Games in Guangzhou (no word yet on the draw). Then in February Olympic Qualifying starts up (Draw on October 20th) with Palestine facing a two-legged playoff against one of the other 22 weakest sides in Asia.
