Baghdad – WAA
The Iraqi Football Association announced, on Saturday afternoon, that the youth team has begun training at the Polo Sub-Ground in preparation for the semi-final match of the West Asian Cup hosted by Jordan.
The Federation said in a statement received by the (INA): “The youth team began its training at the subsidiary polo field in preparation for the semi-final match of the West Asian Cup hosted by Jordan,” indicating that “the training took place in hot weather.”
The statement indicated that “our youth team delegation was surprised by the organizing committee of the West Asian Championship for its insistence on holding training in the afternoon, despite the high temperature, which was supposed to be held in the afternoon or evening, especially since the players are young,” noting that “the training session lasted one hour, divided into recovery sessions for the players who participated in yesterday’s match that ended with our team winning by two goals to one, as all the players exerted great physical efforts, especially after our team fell behind by an early goal, and came back and scored two goals and controlled most of the minutes of the match, despite the poor condition of the artificial turf (dilapidated) and the poor lighting of the stadium.”
The statement pointed out that “the training session included in its second section some physical and individual training, and before its start, the coaching staff spoke with the players, congratulated them on qualifying for the semi-finals of the tournament, and asked them to get out of the euphoria of the victory over Jordan, and focus on correcting some of the mistakes that occurred in the match.”
It is noteworthy that the team that will face Iraq in the semi-finals has not yet been determined, pending the match between Syria and Bahrain, which will determine the features of the semi-final matches, according to the organizing committee.