Palestine’s national team convened earlier this week to conduct the first phase of preparatory training ahead of Round Three of World Cup qualification. Palestine is due to travel to Seoul to face Korea Republic on September fifth before playing host to Jordan five days later.
A near eight week camp is designed to boost the fitness levels of players who are out of contract or still without a club since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October.
Long preparatory phases are not unusual for the national team- especially for games scheduled in the September window. Five years ago, the national team used the WAFF Championship to build fitness and then was in camp for three weeks before vanquishing Uzbekistan at home in the start of 2022 World Cup qualification.
A similar cadence was used to prepare the team for a crucial home 2018 World Cup qualifier against the UAE in 2015.
Makram Daboub knows that picking up points in the first two games will be crucial in determining their ability to survive the ten-game gauntlet of qualifiers. The Tunisian tactician has gone on the record expressing disdain for this window as it usually comes barely a week after the WBPL’s start and at a time when players are trying to compete for starting roles with their clubs abroad.
The plan for the team is to travel to Jordan on August 1st and then travel to Saudi Arabia ten days later. At the end of the month those players tied to their clubs will be released and the team will head to Seoul to face Korea Republic for the first time in their history.
