Receive news, analysis, and other content straight to your inbox by subscribing to Football Palestine (free or paid), here.
Palestine Starting XI (4-4-2): Rami Hamadi; Musab Al-Battat (Musa Farawi 22’), Amid Mahajna, Mohammed Saleh, Camilo Saldaña; Mahmoud Abu Warda (Zaid Qunbar 75’), Odai Kharoub, Mohammed Rashid, Jonathan Cantillana (Tamer Seyam 46’); Omar Faraj (Oday Dabbagh 46’), Wessam Abou Ali
Cautions: Camilo Saldaña 22, 57’ (sent off), Tamer Seyam 90+6’
Goals: Wessam Abou Ali 41’ p. // Zaid Qunbar 90+3’
Recap: It was a night of big calls and they started when both managers threw the dice in regards to their lineup selection. Makram Daboub did not start with Oday Dabbagh for only the third time in a competitive match (he was on the bench for an Asian Cup qualifier vs. Mongolia and the 2023 Asian Cup opener vs. Iran).
Dabboub’s opposite number, Juan Antonio Pizzi also made a bold change of his own- starting the 19 year old Yousef Majed and ditching the five-man backline that had been a staple of his selections.
The mirror narrative continued throughout the game. Palestine started off brighlty winning a corner kick inside of a minute and then winning a free kick at the tiop of the box moments later.
Wessam Abou Ali had a chance to open the scoring with a turn and shoot opportunity only for Sulemian Abdulghafoor to deny him with a good save.
Kuwait grew into the match after the first 20 minutes and had a chance of their own with Salman Mohammed denied by Musab Al-Battat right on the goal line. That would be the captain’s last contribution before being subbed off with a knock.
Nine minutes later disaster struck for Palestine as Amid Mahjana’s high boot resulted in a penalty kick being called. Yousef Nasser sent Rami Hamadi the wrong way to give Kuwait an unexpected lead on 29 minutes. It took nine minutes for Palestine to respond after pushing hard to find an equalizer.
A penalty was called in the 38th minuted and a lengthy VAR review to see if the carnage mertied a red card. Strangely enough Abdulrahman Al-Jassim did not go to the monitor to witness two bone crunching tackles and when he did whistle Wessam Abou Ali duly converted his spot kick.
Makram Daboub went to his bench at halftime calling on two national team stalwarts for a spark. On came Oday Dabbagh and Tamer Seyam in place of Omar Faraj at half time and Palestine clicked they were dictating play and on the front foot. The odd loose ball did mean they had to be on the look for the counter but there was little end product.
That made Camilo Saldaña’s second yellow card especially frustrating as the tactical foul was not necessary- especially as he had already collected a soft yellow card in the first half. The Santiago native was given his marching orders but that did not demoralize Palestine who continued to push.
Wessam Abou Ali had a chance that he pushed over from a difficult angle after a fast break. Minutes later Sulaiman Abdulghafoor saved brilliantly from Oday Dabbagh scrambling across his goalline to deny Palestine’s all-time top scorer.
In the 80th minute, Kuwait found the go-ahead goal through their talisman Youssef Nasser who got in front of Mohammed Saleh to head home from a couple of yards out.
Palestine were once again on the wrong end of a refereeing call when Abdulrahman Al-Jassim and the VAR (which was not summoned) decided a studs up challenge that connected with Odai Kharoub’s knee only merited a yellow card for Mohammed Dahan.
To their credit Palestine did not let their heads drop and it was Odai Kharoub and substitute Zaid Qunbar who would combine at the death to rescue a point from a game high on drama, anguish, and frustration.
What I liked: For the umpteenth time- Asian World Cup qualification is a war of attrition. So denying your direct rivals points through draws can come back to help you. It would be hard to envision Palestine lifting themselves from the bottom of the table had they lost the game and had Kuwait jumped to sole possession of fourth place on five points.
Palestine live to fight another day but will need to win half of the remaining games to realistically clinch a playoff spot.
What I didn’t like: It is time to ditch the 4-4-2 in possession. It simply does not work and inhibits the teams ability to dominate opponents. Palestine had 64% possession but was not entering the final third at a higher clip than Al-Azraq.
The selection left a lot to be desired here as well. Jonathan is a fine defensive player, he keeps possession, completes passes and will put in a shift. That said the last time he completed a dribble for the national team was when Oday Dabbagh was in high school (he attempted ZERO today).
Speaking of Oday Dabbagh. Let us assume that his benching has to do with the fact that he didn’t shake hands with Makram Daboub but if Daboub is such a disciplinarian he should not have played Mohammed Saleh who ran away from national team duty last month. Yaser Hamed played really well against Iraq and crucially had played partner to Mahajna before.
This was also a game that screamed for the likes of Moustafa Zeidan but there was an eagerness to involve all the new players before they were really ready for primetime. Zeidan injured himself against Iraq playing out on the wing where he does not belong.
Daboub has to be honest about what went wrong here. The referee made his fair share of mistakes. Injuries and suspensions played their part but Palestine could have put this game to bed in the first half.
Elsewhere in Group B: Palestine remain the only team to have taken points off of Korea Republic who downed a battling Iraqi side 3-2. Jordan did Palestine a huge favour by absolutely demolishing Oman 4-0. Palestine are on two points but are only one point behind a playoff spot but a whopping five behind second place.
What will hurt many is that a win today could have helped Palestine maintain pace with Jordan and Iraq. Now it seems the fight will be for a playoff spot.
All is left to play for though and the goal must be to win as many of the 18 points still in play.
Fans: The ones that were there were great but there must be a concerted effort from the PFA to draw people to the stadium and give the team some semblance of a homefield advantage. Palestine fans were great vs. UAE at the Asian Cup but did not really show up in the four other matches played in Qatar in 2024.
What’s Next: Palestine travel to Muscat on November 14th to take on Oman in what will be another direct confrontation as Palestine vie to remain above the red line.
