UAE hopes vanish, Arab teams fight: 5 things we learned from the last Asian qualifiers for Qatar 2022
Several Arab teams returned to the field on Thursday in the third day of the final qualifying round for the World Cup. Only the top two teams in each of the six groups automatically qualify for Qatar 2022. You finish third and there are playoffs that are difficult to negotiate.
Here are five things we learned from the last action.
1. Stop Ali Mabkhout and stop the United Arab Emirates
It would never have been easy to defeat Iran for the first time in 14 official matches, but the UAE never really seemed to believe it could. The Whites didn’t play badly in Dubai, but they didn’t have a hard time. Now I’m really struggling to finish in the top two.
Everything was going pretty well for the UAE when Shojae Khalilzadeh received the red card, but the VAR saved the Iranian defender. Once the game resumed, it didn’t take Mehdi Taremi long to score what turned out to be the only goal of the match.
And now for the United Arab Emirates? Only two points in the first three games are not where they wanted to be and Bert van Marwijk’s team are already five points behind South Korea in the race for that all-important second place. They have only scored once in three games and it looks like if you stop Ali Mabkhout from scoring, you don’t have to worry. With not much serve, the striker wasn’t that hard to stop.
The only glimmer of light on a gloomy evening is that South Korea will travel to Tehran on Tuesday and given the irregular shape of the East Asians and a poor record against Team Melli, Iran is expected to win. However, it is by no means encouraging for the UAE to rely on other results so early in this qualifying round and no matter what happens elsewhere, the team must start winning. You can’t beat Iraq and you feel it’s all over.
2. Syria will kick itself
Syria lost 2-1 to South Korea and it was a fair result, indeed, more than fair as the home team lost several chances and should have been hidden at half-time. But Syria remained in the game and refused to be eliminated even after the Taeguk Warriors took the lead early in the second half.
There was always a sense that Syria would have a chance sooner or later, however, and when Omar Khribin finished splendidly with six minutes to go, the match should have ended, with the visitors securing a point.
Yet, with a minute remaining, they fell asleep. How else to explain that he left Son Heung-min, the best Asian player, unmarked just outside the six-yard area? He wasted all the hard work he did. And in that moment, a confidence-building draw turned into a disappointing defeat and, more importantly, the hopes of the first two – undoubtedly slim – became almost non-existent.
3. Iraq and Lebanon cancel each other out
There are 0-0 draws that are fun and tense, and then there are 0-0 draws like this in Doha – good publicity for Asian football was not. Neither team had scored in the two games of this match and it was obvious why.
Most of the offensive moves stopped in the midfield area, and while Iraq started gaining the upper hand in the second half as Lebanon seemed to be getting tired, they never committed enough men forward and never really seemed to believe they were. to be able to score.
Lebanon were much happier at the final whistle, but they had their chances and perhaps think they could have achieved more against a below average Iraqi team.
Iraq lacked creativity, cohesion and intensity. The hopes of the top three, which already seem slim, will be almost non-existent if they lose to the UAE on Tuesday. Judging by recent performances, fans won’t be expecting too much.
4. Oman is giving it all, but now it has to focus on the next games
It would always be tough against an Australian team that had won their last 10 games and that proved when the Socceroos won 3-1.
The fact that the Reds were competitive against Australia was encouraging, as was the fact that they were competitive against Japan and Saudi Arabia. Then comes a match that Branko Ivankovic’s men have to win. Vietnam are the lowest-scoring team in the group and have lost all three games so far, although they have also been competitive in all of them.
If Oman wins at home on Tuesday, they will face China in the next game, knowing that another win will bring the team to nine points and that may be enough to overtake Japan in third place.
Nobody expects Oman to go all the way to Qatar, but if the team manages to remain competitive until the last stages, it will be a sign of progress and something to celebrate.
5. Saudi Arabia aside, it wasn’t a great Arab start
OK, there are four Arab teams in Group A that face off and then face the Asian giants of Iran and South Korea. It is not the lack of points that worries a lot, but the style of play.
Sometimes it seems that people like Iraq and Syria, who have obvious challenges to overcome, give too much respect to the greats. Indeed, if the couple had been a little more ambitious in Korea, they could have achieved something substantial.
There is enough talent not to stall just to avoid defeat and if attitudes can change, results can change too.
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