2024 WAFF U-23 Championship starts in Al-Ahsa on Wednesday

2024-03-19
18:12:37

The fifth edition of the West Asian Federation U-23 Championship will begin tomorrow, Wednesday, which will be hosted by the city of Al-Ahsa during the period from 20-26 March, with the participation of 8 teams: Jordan, Iraq, UAE, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Egypt, in addition to the Saudi national U-21 national team.
Inviting teams from outside the region (South Korea, Thailand, Australia and Egypt) comes as a continuation of the WAFF’s plans to expand participation and open the way for national federation teams to play matches with competitors from outside the region with the aim of diversity and gaining more experience.
The draw, which was held on March 3, resulted in 4 matches, as the national under-21 team meets the Jordanian Olympic team, while the Egyptian and UAE Olympic teams will meet each other, while the Iraqi under-20 national team meets the Australian Olympic team, and South korea will face Thailand.
Tomorrow, 4 matches will be held, in a knockout system, where our national team will meet with the Jordanian team at Al-FatehClub Stadium, which will also host a South Korea game against Thailand, while the Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Sports City Stadium will host the matches of Australia with Iraq and Egypt against UAE.
The coaches of the teams participating in the tournament held a press conference on Tuesday, where the coach of the national under-21 team, Marcos Suarez, stressed the importance of participating in this tournament in order to gain experience, noting that Jordan will face a strong team.
Suarez added that the goal of the tournament is to gain experience from confrontations against teams from different continents, but at the same time he stressed that he will strive to compete for the title.
For his part, the technical director of the Jordanian national team, Abdullah Abu Zam, said that his ambition in the tournament is to compete for the title, stressing the difficulty of facing the Saudi national team as it includes distinguished young players.
Abu Zam pointed out that the tournament is a strong opportunity for the Jordanian team to prepare with full force for the Asian Cup, as the Jordanian team seeks to reserve a qualifying seat for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, noting that the first team’s achievement in qualifying for the Asian Cup final gives them positive motivation to making new achievements for Jordanian football.
Isla Senaro, the coach of the Thai national team, spoke about the tournament, which he considered strong because it includes strong teams in Asia and abroad, pointing out that the biggest challenge for him is achieving the required harmony between the players and gaining experience.
For his part, the coach of the South Korean national team, Myung Ji-young, confirmed that the tournament is a good opportunity before competing in the Asian Cup, indicating that he will compete in the West Asian Championship with the utmost strength in order to prepare the players for the continental championship.
Marcelo Broli, the coach of the UAE national team, expressed his happiness to participate in this tournament, noting that the tournament represents a special challenge for the group, especially since the confrontation will be against the strong Egyptian team, but he indicated that his ambition is to prepare a strong team capable of competing, and this is something that will not be achieved without winning such strong confrontations.
On the other hand, the coach of the Egyptian Olympic team, Brazilian Rogero Micale, expressed his happiness at his return to the Kingdom after his previous experience in Saudi stadiums, praising the distinguished reception he received.
Mikali said that the tournament is an opportunity to prepare strongly for the Olympic Games, praising the stadiums and all aspects that will make this tournament a success and give the players the opportunity to give their best.
Australian national team coach Tony Vidmar spoke about the tournament, which he described as strong because it includes distinguished teams, stressing the difficulty of confronting the Iraqi national team.
For his part, the coach of the Iraqi national team, Ihsan Tarli, thanked the SAFF for hosting the tournament, which he considered similar to the continental championship, stressing the full readiness of his team, to compete for the championship.