Latest news with #AsianQualifiers
Arab News
3 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Saudi national team steps up preparations for Bahrain World Cup qualifier
RIYADH: The Saudi national football team resumed training on Sunday evening as preparations intensify for Thursday's crucial clash against Bahrain in the ninth round of Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. For the latest updates, follow us @ArabNewsSport Under the guidance of head coach Herve Renard, the session at Ettifaq Club Stadium featured warm-ups, possession drills, tactical exercises, and stretching routines. Several players were sidelined due to injuries, including Muhannad Al-Shanqeeti, Abdulrahman Al-Aboud, and Jihad Zekr, who was injured during the recent King's Cup final, as well as Muhannad Al-Saad, who was hurt in a previous friendly. Mohamed Bakr continued his rehabilitation program, while Muteb Al-Harbi began recovery work with the medical team. Defender Abdulelah Al-Amri took part in recovery drills only. The team will hold a closed training session on Monday evening as preparations continue.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
28-05-2025
- Sport
- First Post
Sunil Chhetri included as Manolo Marquez announces 28-member Indian football squad for Thailand friendly
India football team is scheduled to play Thailand in a FIFA friendly on 4 June before the Asian Qualifiers against Hong Kong. Check out India's full squad. read more India football team head coach Manolo Márquez on Wednesday (28 May) confirmed that the 28 players participating in the ongoing camp in Kolkata will travel to Thailand for the FIFA friendly against the hosts, scheduled for 4 June. The Blue Tigers had been training in the City of Joy since 19 May. The Indian football team contingent will leave for Thailand on Wednesday evening. The friendly match between India and Thailand will take place on 4 June at the Thammasat Stadium in Pathum Thani at 18:00 IST. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Indian football team will depart for Hong Kong on 5 June for the AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers Final Round fixture against the East Asian side on 10 June at 17:30 IST. More from Football Goalkeepers: Hrithik Tiwari, Vishal Kaith, Gurmeet Singh, Amrinder Singh. Defenders: Naorem Roshan Singh, Rahul Bheke, Chinglensana Singh Konsham, Anwar Ali, Boris Singh Thangjam, Sandesh Jhingan, Asish Rai, Subhasish Bose, Mehtab Singh, Abhishek Singh Tekcham. Midfielders: Suresh Singh Wangjam, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Ayush Dev Chhetri, Udanta Singh Kumam, Lalengmawia Ralte, Liston Colaco, Ashique Kuruniyan, Brandon Fernandes, Nikhil Prabhu. Forwards: Sunil Chhetri, Edmund Lalrindika, Manvir Singh, Suhail Ahmad Bhat, Lallianzuala Chhangte. Head Coach: Manolo Márquez Assistant Coach: Mahesh Gawali Assistant Coach: Benito Montalvo Goalkeeper Coach: Marc Gamon Strength and Conditioning Coach: José Carlos Barroso
Observer
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Observer
Oman gear up for closed friendly match with Lebanon
MUSCAT: The Oman national football team will play a crucial closed-door friendly match against Lebanon on Wednesday at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex as part of their ongoing domestic training camp in preparation for the final round of the Fifa World Cup 2026 Asian Qualifiers. The match will kick off at 8:00 pm (Oman time). This friendly encounter against Lebanon will serve as a final rehearsal allowing the technical staff to fine-tune the lineup and ensure peak readiness for what promises to be two defining fixtures on the road to the Fifa World Cup 2026. Oman players during the training camp Furthermore, the preparatory against Lebanon will mark the second preparatory match for the Red Warriors, following their 4-1 victory over Niger last week. The fixture which arranged at the request of both coaching staffs will take place at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex venue behind closed doors to maintain tactical confidentiality ahead of the critical qualifiers. Since last Friday, Oman team moved their training sessions at Seeb Stadium, following a the coaching staff decision by head coach Rasheed Jaber and his team to shift from the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. The venue switch has allowed the squad to intensify preparations in a focused environment. Lebanon match will mark the second preparatory match Today's match may see the return of key players who missed the first friendly including Al Mundher al Alawi, Essam al Subhi and players from Seeb Club who were absent during the Niger fixture due to club commitments. Their inclusion is expected to provide valuable depth and experience to the squad as final adjustments are made before the competitive matches. The Oman Football Association (OFA) confirmed that goalkeeper Ibrahim al Mukhaini remains sidelined due to a finger injury and will be out for four weeks. Additionally, defender Amjad al Harthy has been ruled out of the upcoming qualifiers after suffering a leg injury based OFA announcement in social media channels of OFA. Oman gear up for closed friendly match with Lebanon His absence is a significant setback to the defensive lineup as Oman eyes crucial wins in the last two fixtures. It is expected that the coaching staff will work to provide the alternative player in this position. Meanwhile, Salah al Yahyaei, who is still engaged with his club duties at Al Khalidiya SC in Bahrain, is set to join the national team squad after the Lebanon match, further strengthening the side ahead of the qualifiers. Oman is currently fourth in their group with ten points from eight matches, trailing leaders South Korea by six points. With matches against Jordan on June 5 in Muscat and Palestine on June 10 in Jordan, the Red Warriors are aiming to build on their recent form and secure a place in the next stage of qualification.
Indian Express
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Raiza Dhillon takes inspiration from chat with Olympic silver medallist to shoot first medal at Suhl
Last year, when the then-20-year-old Raiza Dhillon competed in the Paris Olympics in the women's skeet event, the Panchkula resident was the youngest Indian shooter at Paris. Even though Dhillon, who had bagged the Paris quota for India in the Asian Qualifiers in Kuwait last year, finished 23rd and missed the final, the Haryana youngster spent some time with Paris Olympics silver medallist Amber Rutter of Great Britain. On Thursday, as the 21-year-old won the silver medal with Phoebe Bodley-Scott of Great Britain at the ISSF Junior World Cup, the Haryana shooter was recalling the conversation she had with Rutter in Paris. 'At the Paris Olympics, Amber Rutter was shooting after a gap of more than two years post her child's birth. Post her silver medal win, when I approached her, she told me, 'Enjoy shooting and give your best, rest of the things will fall in place.' That was the biggest lesson for me from Paris and this silver medal I would surely dedicate to Rutter's inspiring words to me,' said Dhillon while speaking with The Indian Express. Daughter of agriculturist Ravijit Singh Dhillon and Gul Dhilon, a sarpanch of their native village Shamgarh near Karnal in Haryana, Raiza along with Maheshwari Chauhan had become the first Indian women skeet shooters to compete at Olympics in Paris. The Haryana youngster, who had won a silver in the Junior World Championships in Changwon in 2023 had become only the second Indian woman skeet shooter to achieve so after Ganemat Sekhon in 2021. Prior to the Olympics, Dhillon would spend her time in Italy and India training under her personal coaches Ennio Falco and Amarinder Singh Cheema and to work on some changes in her technique. 'I was struggling with taking too much time on shooting my first shot which would result in getting very less time to shoot the second shot whether in the four shot round and two shot round in finals. So we were working on that and skeet shooting is something, where a minor change in technique also takes a lot of time. Of course, I would have wanted a better finish in the Paris Olympics but then I could not and I just treat it as the start to my shooting career,' says Raiza. Post Olympics, Raiza matched the junior national qualification record with a qualification score of 122 and followed that with matching Ganemat Sekon's national record of 124 with a score of 124/125 in the All India Inter-University Championships in February this year. Last month, Dhillon also made her first Senior World Cup final when she finished fifth in the ISSF World Cup in Lima last month. In Lima, Dhillon competed against the likes of three-time Olympic champion Kimberley Rhode of USA apart from Paris Olympics mixed team bronze medallist Yiting Jian of China, 2021 World Championships silver medallist Samantha Simonton of USA and multiple world championship and world cup medallist and Olympian Dania Jo Vizzi of USA. 'Competing in my first senior World Cup final was another high. While the Americans shoot the American style of mounting the gun from the right side, my technique is shooting the Italian way mounting the gun diagonally. And all of them there gave me some insights and to feel the final pressure too was a learning experience,' said Dhillon. On Thursday, Raiza qualified at the second spot behind Zarina Madeleine Russell of Great Britain after a three-way 24-shoot off between her, Phoebe Bodley-Scott and Annabella Hettmer of Germany, who were tied with a score of 116 each. In the final, Dhillon missed only one shot out of the first ten shots and would miss one shot again to be placed at the top ahead of Scott due to higher bib number. Even though she missed three of next 10 shots, Raiza maintained the top-three position after 30 shots with 25 hits and was behind Scott by one point. The next 30 shots saw Raiza miss only one shot as she won the silver with a score of 51 behind Scott's score of 53. 'Conditions were very windy today and the targets were going up and down instead of following a straight path. So I had to counter that with some quick movements of the gun. In recent times, I also had some problem with shooting at the two shot round with some struggle in hitting the second shot.I had conversations with national coach Riccardo Filippelli earlier and he had made some technical changes in my shooting for the second shot as the two-shot round sees the targets being the farthest from a shooter in skeet. I did miss some in the third series of ten shots but then I managed my cool in windy conditions to win the silver,' concluded Raiza. Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story 'Harmans of Moga', Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women's cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin's interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More
Times of Oman
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Times of Oman
Oman rout Niger ahead of World Cup qualifiers
MUSCAT: With just two matches left in the crucial third round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Asian Qualifiers in June, Oman signalled their intent with a dominant 4-1 victory over Niger in a closed-door friendly on Tuesday night, held at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex as part of their ongoing domestic training camp. The Red Warriors, coached by Omani Rasheed Jaber, produced an assured attacking performance, led by the rising star Tariq Al Saadi, who opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 25th minute. Midfielder Mohammed Al Ghafri added a quickfire brace just before and after the break (45', 46'), while Mohsin Al Ghassani rounded off the scoring with another penalty in the 86th minute. Niger's lone goal came in the first half, with Oman holding a 3-1 lead at the interval. The match offered valuable playing time for several squad members, with head coach Jaber making seven second-half substitutions. Among those introduced were goalkeeper AbdulMalik Al Badri (Al Shabab Club), Hatim Al Roushdi, Yousef Al Malki, Ahed Al Mashakheyi, Hussain Al Shahri, Issa Al Naabi, and Mohammed Abdulhakeem. The rotation helped test tactical flexibility and improve cohesion as Oman sharpen their focus ahead of the must-win qualifiers. 'The goal was to test depth, fine-tune our attacking transitions, and reinforce defensive discipline,' said coach Jaber, who alongside assistant Yaqoob Al Sabahi, continues to assess form and fitness in the build-up to June's double-header against Jordan (June 5 in Muscat) and Palestine (June 10, away in Jordan). However, Oman's preparations have been dealt a setback with the injury to first-choice goalkeeper Ibrahim Al Mukhaini, who fractured a finger in his left hand. The national team's medical staff confirmed a four-week recovery period, ruling him out of the remaining qualifiers. In response, Jaber has called up Ahmed Al Rawahi and Motasim Al Wahaibi to reinforce the goalkeeping department. Four nations remain in the mix for direct qualification in Group B, with South Korea, Jordan, Iraq and Oman all putting their hopes on the line in June's final two matches. The Koreans will seal their spot on 5 June should they avoid defeat against Iraq in Basra. Jordan, meanwhile, will qualify for a first World Cup on the same day should they defeat Oman in Muscat and Iraq lose against South Korea. With two rounds remaining, Oman sit fourth with 10 points from eight matches. South Korea lead the group with 16 points, followed by Jordan (13), Iraq (12), and Oman (10). Palestine (6) and Kuwait (5) complete the table. The top two teams will progress to the final round of World Cup qualifying. Oman's recent form – two wins from their last three games – suggests growing momentum, but qualification hinges on back-to-back victories. The June 5 clash against Jordan at home is being billed as a do-or-die fixture, and a positive result could set up a decisive finale against Palestine. As the Red Warriors prepare for the final stretch, belief remains strong in the camp. The commanding win over Niger may have been a friendly, but it offered more than just confidence — it served as a reminder that Oman still have the tools, talent, and tenacity to fight for a place on the road to 2026. Oman play their final warm-up game against Lebanon on May 28 ahead of their match against Jordan at home.
