2024-01-30T12:45:22+00:00
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/ The Iraqi Football Association renewed its confidence on Tuesday in the Spanish coach Jesus Casas, the coach of the national team, and decided to include him in the Asian finals for Olympic teams.
The media office of the federation said in a statement received by Agency, “The President of the Iraqi Football Association, Adnan Darjal, held a meeting today with the coaching staff of the national team, led by coach Jesus Casas, at the residence of the Iraqi delegation in Doha to discuss future work.”
According to the statement, Darjal said, “I appreciate everyone’s sadness, but this is football, and we must not despair, and rise again with strength to achieve the set goals, and focus on the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup.”
He added: I thank the efforts of the coaching staff and players. Participation in the Asian Cup Championship carried many negatives and positives, and we must benefit from the lessons learned from it so that our next steps will be in the best possible way.
Darjal pointed out that “Coach Casas will submit a detailed report on this participation so that all matters are clear and precise, because the upcoming work requires us to be strong and united with the aim of achieving victories.”
He continued: “We have great confidence in the coaching staff, led by coach Casas and his assistant team, to achieve the supreme goal of the federation, because our national team has become the focus of everyone’s attention, and we must continue working with a professional vision to continue the successes and achieve positive results.”
He explained: “We will continue our support for the coaching staff, and work to create the appropriate conditions for the national team in the next stage, as we believe in its ability to implement the plans in a sound manner.”
The head of the union pointed out that “everyone is surprised by what happened at the press conference, which does not reflect the image of the Iraqi media, which considers Iraq to be one of the towering Arab summits in this regard, and this chaos cannot tarnish its reputation in the Arab world and Asia, but it must be confronted firmly.”
Darjal announced the Federation’s approval of “Kassas’ presence in the Asian Olympic Teams Finals, to follow up on our national team players, in a step to continue the integrated work between the national teams, and that we will provide great support to the Olympic team to qualify for the Paris Olympics.”
For his part, the national team coach, Casas, said, “Our ambition in the tournament was to continue the Asian journey to the furthest point, and our loss to Jordan was undeserved, as we were ahead, but the decision to expel Ayman Hussein changed the result, and our exit from the tournament will give us double the strength to work with a spirit of challenge to achieve reaching the next World Cup.”
The Iraqi national team bid farewell to the Asian Cup yesterday afternoon, Monday, with a difficult loss to its Jordanian counterpart, who scored a fatal goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time after the end of regular time in the controversial match, especially after it witnessed the expulsion of Iraqi striker Ayman Hussein.
Darjal also held a meeting with the Iraqi national team delegation, represented by the technical and administrative staff and players, after the end of the national team’s participation in the Asian finals following the loss to its Jordanian counterpart (3-2) in the round of 16.
At the beginning of his speech, Darjal thanked all the efforts made within the national team system in the Asian Cup, but the reality of football teaches us lessons and morals, especially in the knockout stages, so that we can learn in our upcoming events to be in a better reality. Darjal expressed the need to continue to achieve our aspirations in the future, for a better participation for the Iraqi national team, specifically in the World Cup qualifiers, pointing out that the experience was important, and we gained many young players, and the experience will be an incentive and an element of strength for the national team, and through it we will be confident in ourselves in terms of rubbing shoulders with strong teams in the future.
The President of the Federation expressed his satisfaction with the general performance in the first rounds, with his high confidence in the technical staff led by Casas, to the point that the ceiling of ambitions was high, and we could have been better in the last match if it weren’t for the unfair refereeing errors, but we have to be strong in such moments, and show ourselves the high confidence that we have, and despite that we succeeded in showing a distinctive face, and you were able to keep up with the tournament and present the best performances. I also thank the loyal Iraqi audience who stood by you and encouraged you with enthusiasm and magnificence that contributed to presenting the maximum energies in the matches, and we still have to work together to succeed in reaching the World Cup.