Qatar Coach Julen Lopetegui Prep Fifa World Cup Bombs

tory to play in a World Cup without qualifying for it and the second after Italy to qualify as hosts after being not part of the World Cups before. The Julen Lopetegui coached Qatar side will open their campaign in Group B as they face Switzerland at San Francisco Bay Arena on Saturday. Earlier in March, the team’s preparations were hampered by the US-Iran war, which also saw Iran bombing locations in Qatar. The attacks meant that the country’s friendlies against Serbia and reigning world champions Argentina were cancelled. Lopetegui has now spoken about how the attacks hampered his team’s preparations apart from his family asking him to return but he chose to stay back.

Post march, the world number 54 side played friendlies against Ireland, which they lost 0-1, and drew 0-0 against El Salvador in their preparations for the World Cup. The Hassan Al-Haydos led coached side had arrived in Los Angeles last month to prepare ahead of the World Cup and the team had been training there since the last few days. The team, which also has the presence of Indian-origin footballer Tahsin Mohammad Jamshid in their ranks, will hope to start the tournament with a win against Switzerland. In the 2022 World Cup, Qatar had lost in all three Group A matches with a 2-0 loss against Ecuador, a 3-1 loss against Senegal and a 2-0 loss against Netherlands. Lopetegui had joined the team as head coach last year and the 59-year-old coach talked about how the team was motivated to play in this World Cup through quaffing and how wins over Iran and UAE meant a lot to the team. “We came for two main reasons: to take on a huge challenge no one had done (Qatar qualified through qualification for the first time) and to test ourselves in a very different context. And, of course, there was that feeling, the hope of being at a World Cup, which we could have had with another national team. We could have gone out straight away against Iran, the Brazil of [the region], but we won 1-0, which gave us time for Emirates [UAE] and Oman. We had to see what we could do, not what we wanted to do. You’re used to different players, intensity, qualities. That was an important shock for us when we started. Qatar is a country of 300,000 people; maybe 10,000 play. Against us, the Emirates had maybe one starter who was from the Emirates: the rest were Brazilians, Portuguese, Poles … we beat them. You have to improve quality, but maintain that essence,” added the coach.

With Qatar having the Qatar Stars League, where most of the current national team players play, the coach also talked about the importance of such a league apart from how playing in qualifiers as well as friendlies made the team realise the reality. “The biggest difference we found was in the level of competitiveness, the pace, the games they’re playing. We’re maybe the only national team (here) with lots of players who have only played four, five times this year. Our league has a lot of foreigners so there are 19, 20, 21-year-old players not getting the opportunity. The goalkeepers are all Qatari so often it’s as little as two outfield players,” said the coach.