Jouma: tasting defeat is not so bad

The U-19 Syrian national team coach Mohammed Jouma took a pragmatic approach to his side’s 2-1 loss to Qatar in their final group stage match of the AFC U-19 Championship insisting that it was a good lesson for the players ahead of the tournament’s knockout phase.

 Qatar took the lead against the run of play a minute from the interval courtesy of Ahmed Alaeddin, who then doubled his side’s advantage three minutes into the second-half before Syria striker Mahmoud Al Mawas reduced the deficit with a 67th minute penalty.

“The players tasted the defeat today which is not bad as this defeat is not considered crucial at this stage,” Jouma (pictured) said at the post-match press conference.

“I congratulate Qatar for their win but for us we couldn’t score from the chances we created. After Qatar scored twice and we had a player sent off the players lost their focus.

“These are young players and maybe today they were affected by the big crowd as well as the two goals of Qatar.”

 The defeat proved not to be too detrimental to Syria as Saudi Arabia’s 1-1 draw with Australia in the other Group D match kicking-off simultaneously over in Ras Al Khaimah saw the Syrians finish second in the standings behind the Young Socceroos.

 “We will prepare well for the quarter final match. We still have a mission to reach the World Cup.

“We don’t think about the opponent team in the next match, we must be ready for any team.”