Arab Cup Qatar 2021: Syrian Team Counts on History to Regain Glory in its Seventh Participation

Doha, November 04 (QNA) - The Syrian team hopes to enter the tenth edition of the Arab Cup, hosted by the State of Qatar for the second time in its history, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 18, with the participation of 16 teams under the supervision of the International Football Association (FIFA). The people of Syria will be obsessed with breaking the runner-up barrier, which they touched on three occasions, in addition to taking advantage of their good history throughout the previous Arab Cup participation. Although many obstacles may cast a shadow on the reality of the Syrian team, negatively affecting their career in the Arab World Cup, most prominently, are the administrative instability and the recent resignations of the Football Association. Syria will compete in Group B, which includes the teams of Tunisia, UAE, and Mauritania. Group A includes Qatar, Iraq, Oman, and Bahrain. Playing in Group are Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Palestine, while Group D includes Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, and Sudan. The Syrian team will begin its journey in the Arab Cup on the group stage by facing UAE on the first day of the tournament to cut the ribbon of the opening of the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium. Its second match will be with its Tunisian counterpart on Dec. 3 at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, which will host the opening of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Syria will then face Mauritania at the end of the group stage on Dec. 6 at the Al Janoub Stadium. The two best teams from each group qualify for the knockout stage. The Arab Cup is an important station for the teams to find out their true skills and correct mistakes, on the way to the qualifiers, whether for the Arabs of Asia or Africa, which portends the high technical level of the competition, and will motivate players to present their best levels a year before returning to Qatar to participate in the World Cup. The Syrian and Emirati teams have never faced each other before in the Arab Cup, but they met on 13 different occasions. The UAE team has six victories, while Syria has won on two occasions, compared to a draw in six meetings. Their last match they played together was on Sep. 7, in the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, where they tied with one goal in the Jordanian capital, Amman, while their first meeting was on Jan. 12, 1979, for the Asian Cup qualifiers, which ended in a goalless draw. During their Arab Cup journey, the Syrian team won the runner-up position three times in 1963, 1966, and 1988, while they won fourth place in the tournament hosted by Syria in 1992. Egypt won the tournament's title. The titles of the previous nine editions were distributed to Iraq 4 times and Saudi Arabia twice, while Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia once. The Syrian team recorded its Arab presence with the first edition in 1963 in Beirut alongside Lebanon, Tunisia, Kuwait, and Jordan for one stage and runner-up, while Tunisia won the title and the host Lebanese team came third. In the second Syrian participation in 1966, which was hosted in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the participating teams were divided into two groups, the first and second qualifying, and the Syrian team came in the second group along with Libya, Palestine, Yemen, and Oman, which withdrew. The Syrian team kept a clean sheet in three matches as a record for one tournament and achieved the highest result against the North Yemen team with seven goals without a response. Syria recorded its third participation in the Arab Cup in the 1988 edition, which was hosted by the Jordanian capital, Amman, and was close to get the title. Beating the Egyptian team in the semi-finals by penalties is the most prominent in the history of Syrias participation. At that time, Syrian goalkeeper Malek Shakuhi managed to prevent two penalty kicks shot by Ismail Youssef and Alaa Mihoub. The Syrians scored the four kicks by Al-Kardaghli, Faisal Ahmed, Muhammad Jaqlan and Hussein Deeb. In the final, the Syrian team lost after a heroic performance against the Iraqi team, which ended the match in its favor by penalty shootouts 4-3 after a 1-1 draw in the original time. In 1992, the Syrian capital, Damascus hosted the tournament and Egypt crowned its title with the participation of six teams: Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt. The Syrian team reached the semi-finals before losing in front of the Egyptian team on penalties, 4-3, after a goalless draw in the original time. The fifth participation of the Syrian team was in the 1998 edition in Qatar. It left the tournament early from the group stage without a score, with one goal against six goals, as the lowest score in the history of its participation. Syria ranked third in its group after Kuwait and Egypt, and lost the first match against Egypt 1-2. The sixth and last participation of the Syrian national team was in the 2002 edition hosted by Kuwait. It came out of the first round by coming third behind Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and before Yemen and Lebanon. The Syrian team will face Iraq in Doha on Nov. 11 in the fifth round of Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers Coach Nizar Mahrous' players are looking forward to reviving their hopes of fighting for half the card, especially after losing the opportunity to compete for the first and second places, following a series of disappointing results that precipitated the departure of the Football Association headed by Hatem Ghaeb. The Syrian team started the Asian qualifiers by losing in front of Iran in Tehran, and drawing with the UAE in Oman, before losing on two occasions against South Korea and Lebanon, respectively. The Syrian national team is currently ranked sixth (last) in Group A with one point from 4 matches. Six of the World Cup stadiums will host the Arab Cup matches, foremost of which is Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, which will witness the opening of the tournament between Qatar and Bahrain on Nov. 30, and the final match on Dec. 18. Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakra, Ras Abu Aboud, Al Thumama, Education City and Ahmed Bin Ali in Al Rayyan will host the rest of the tournament matches. The tournament will witness the announcement of the readiness of two stadiums for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which are Al Bayt Stadium, that will host the opening and the final matches and Ras Abu Aboud, the first completely "dismantling" stadium in the history of the FIFA World Cup. (QNA)