The Iraq team adheres to the “palm trunk” to pick South Korea points

The Iraq football team is clinging to the hope of winning its guest, South Korea, on Thursday, to keep its chances of direct qualification to the 2026 World Cup Finals.
The match will be held at Basra International Stadium, “Palm Hunter” (22:15 Emirates time) within the ninth round of the last, from the third round of the second group of Asia.
Iraq must not neglect the points of the two matches against Korea and then Jordan in Amman, on Tuesday, to ensure that the continental attachment and the final reach of the second time in its history after 1986.
Iraq is third (12 points), four points behind South Korea, the leading and point from Jordan, while it is ranging in the Sultanate of Oman by two points.
The third and fourth group, the additional attaché competitions, shall be played, with eight and a half seats for Asia.
Iraq is counting on technical change after the loss against Palestine in Amman 1-2, by dismissing his Spanish coach Jesus Casas and using the Australian Graham Arnold.
Iraq was satisfied with a training camp that started on the 25th of last month in Basra, without playing experimental matches.
If Jordan’s victory over Oman and the loss of Iraq against Korea, Jordan will qualify directly for the first time in its history.
The striker Ayman Hussein (Al -Khor Al -Qatari) is absent from Iraq to stop him, in addition to the injuries of Zidan Iqbal (Utrecht of the Dutch), Amjad Atwan (Zakho), Muntazer Majid (Hamarbi Al -Suwaidi) and Mustafa Saadoun (Air Force).
However, Arnold summoned Ali Al -Hammadi (Epsuch Town) the young striker Mohamed Jawad, who drew attention in the Iraqi Stars League from (Air Force), in addition to returning him to midfielders, Muhammad Qasim (Najaf), Hassan Abdel Karim (Al -Zawra) and Sajad Jassim (Police).
Iraq is also betting on the capabilities of Youssef Al -Amin (Saudi Al -Wahda) and Ibrahim Bish (Saudi Riyadh) in addition to the leaders of the top scorer of the Iraq Stars League, Muhannad Ali (Police), as well as the midfielder Amir Al -Ammari (the Polish Krakovia) and Ali Jassim (Al -Miri City City), in exchange for stability on the goalkeeper and captain of the team Jalal Hassan and players of the defense line that was strengthened with the return of Saad Nateh (students).
The former international player, Bassem Qassem, believes that “what our national team is technically lacking, before confronting South Korea, is that our team is not playing experimental matches during the Arnold era.”
“The new coach of Iraq had to see the levels of the players directly, in light of the time to hold international matches to evaluate their performance.”
He added, “Nevertheless, the Iraqi team has the ability to confront South Korea and provide good performance thanks to the capabilities of its players and arrange it with the land and the atmosphere in addition to the public, not to mention that the results of the Korean team in the qualifiers have a lot of question marks and technical level generated great pressures towards him.”
He explained that “the coach Arnold witnessed the players closely in the training units closely and the person of many points, but it is not sufficient in my opinion.”
He continued that “reaching the World Cup 2026 finals directly from the second group and achieving the aspirations of the Iraqi fans, much easier than entering the bottleneck where the continental supplement qualified for the World Cup, due to the convergence of levels, the absence of compensation and the establishment of matches outside our land.”
Al -Baghdadi’s student coach stressed, “In my personal belief, a glimmer of hope will nominate Iraq without the effort of the attachment will be in our hands, so defeating South Korea and Jordan in the last two rounds and reducing all factors will be an opportunity to stay away from complex scenarios, while the annex means that there is an accumulation of negative results from the technical and administrative aspects, and perhaps all the papers are scattered.”