Asia qualifiers for the World Cup 2026 .. A stormy Arab trip on the trainers’ seats

The journey of Arab representatives, who are playing the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, was a storm in the technical leadership level with changes that affected the nine teams, all of which enter the ninth round before the last, and it is still in the competition circle to qualify, whether directly or through a fourth round.

In the first group that settled its first card directly to the finals in favor of Iran, the UAE is ranked third, four points behind Uzbekistan, and its at least guaranteed the fourth round, while Qatar comes in fourth place and its chances were limited to the competition of Kyrgyzstan to complete the qualifiers in the fourth round.

The ninth round, scheduled for Thursday, will be the first appearance of the Emirati team led by the new Romanian coach, Cosmin Olario, who must resolve the crucial confrontation scheduled for Thursday in Abu Dhabi against Uzbekistan, which is enough for it to draw to qualify for the finals for the first time.

The UAE federation took refuge in Cosmin after ending its contract with Portuguese coach Paulo Pinto after the eighth round and a few days beat North Korea.

The 55 -year -old UAE football is well known by training Al Ain and Al -Ahly and Sharjah from 2021 until his leadership on May 18 to the AFC Champions League title 2.

In terms of the Qatari national team, its arduous match will be on Thursday against its Iranian guest, the baptism of fire also for his new Spanish coach, Khulin Lopetegui, who left his compatriot Luis Garcia after the latter’s contract ended with mutual consent, to end the journey that he started last December to succeed the other Spaniard Marcis Lopeis “Tintin”, the champion of Qatar’s crowning of the Asian Cup 2023.

In the second group, the door to the conflict is still wide open to the five Arab teams present in the company of the South Korean giant, who needs Thursday to draw with its Iraqi host to ensure its qualification.

Jordan will be on a date with history if it beat the Sultanate of Oman in Muscat and the loss of Iraq to South Korea.

The five Arab teams witnessed a change in the position of coach in various stages of the qualifiers, starting from Jordan, the second group, which was appointed by Moroccan Jamal Al -Salami in June 2024 instead of his compatriot Al -Hussein Amouta resigned after the leadership of Al -Nishami to the third round of the qualifiers, and thus the Asian Cup 2027.

As for the dreaming Iraqi team, to play the World Finals for the second time, after the first of 1986, Thursday against South Korea is playing its first match led by Australian Graham Arnold, who is responsible for the Spanish Jesus Casas, the article in mid -April with his aides because of their “serious violation of contractual obligations.”

The leadership of Kasas, who received the task in the year 2022 and led them to win the 2023 Gulf Cup on their soil, lost their last match in the qualifiers against Palestine 1-2, which reduced their chances of direct qualification.

Similar to Iraq, the opportunity is still in front of Oman to qualify for the first time in the history of the Sultanate, which tested a change in the position of coach in the midst of her qualifying campaign when the local Rashid Jaber chose to take over the mission last September to succeed the Czech Yaroslav Shilahafi, who received the position in February 2024 and was supposed to remain until the summer of 2026, but the team did not lead only in six games, between four in the second round From the qualifiers, in addition to two in the third round, they lost them against Iraq 0-1 and South Korea 1-3.

From the side of Palestine and Kuwait, which are still mathematically in the circle of conflict to fight the fourth round, the first was exempted from his Tunisian coach, Makram Daboub, from his post in early December and used the local Ihab Abu Jazar after failing to achieve any victory in the first six rounds of the third round, while the second fought the qualifiers with two coaches, the Portuguese Roy Pinto and then Argentine Juan Antonio Pitsi, who dispensed with him.

In the third that Japan qualified for, two Arab teams are the Saudi who is still in the circle of conflict with Australia and Indonesia on the second card, and the Bahraini whose hopes were limited to the fourth round.

The Saudi Al-Akhdar resorted to French coach Herve Ronard, who returned to his previous mission in late October after the dismissal of Italian Roberto Mancini, but he started his career with a draw against Australia 0-0 and then a loss against Indonesia 0-2 before grabbing at the expense of China (1-0) and then a draw in Japan (0-0).

On the part of Bahrain, the qualifiers, led by Argentine Pitsi, who left two rounds after the beginning of the second round after the completion of the contract by mutual consent, and the Croatian mission, Dragan Talayic, received since then.