Asian Cup 2015 (Qs): fighting spirits imperative, says Shaar

Amman: Coach Ahmad Al Shaar has called on the national Syrian team to show their “fighting spirits” in order to qualify for a second consecutive AFC Asian Cup appearance ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with Jordan in Group A.

After being eliminated in the group stages of the 2011 edition of the tournament, albeit after achieving a much-lauded triumph against three-time winners Saudi Arabia, the national Syrian team  must emerge victorious from the fixture in Amman to have any hope of progressing to their sixth AFC Asian Cup.

And with Wednesday’s opponents along with group winners Oman having already secured the two guaranteed qualification berths available from Group A, Syria must better the 1-1 score line they achieved against Jordan last August to keep themselves in contention for the best third-placed finish.

“The match is important for us because we still have a chance to qualify as the best third placed team in the qualifiers,” said coach Al Shaar, who will be without defender NadimSabag through suspension and forward SanharibMalki through injury.

“The win is also important even if we don’t qualify because most of our players are young and it will give them a big boost to get the three points.

“We had some difficulties in preparations as we only had two training sessions with the presence of the whole team. However, we are confident that the players will be showing great fighting spirits in order to win the match.”

However, Jordan coach Hossam Hassan has called on his players to develop a ‘winning mentality’ starting with the fixture against their fellow West Asians.

“After securing our qualification in the previous match, we asked the players to deal with the match with a winning mentality as a victory will be important to improve our world ranking and to prove that we deserve to qualify,” said coach Hassan, who will be without suspended forward Ahmad Hayel.

“We gave some rest to many of our players but we are confident that the players we have are ready for the match and we know that they will be showing a good performance and get another important victory.”

Mohammad Daoud