Asian Cup 2015: Kuwait ready to upset Socceroos in tournament opener
THEY lost their best player and changed coaches in the build up to the Asian Cup but Kuwait are still confident they can surprise the Socceroos.
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A PASSPORT row robbed them of one of their best players and a poor Gulf Nations Cup saw the coach sacked in November, but Kuwait are still confident of upsetting the odds on Friday night.
The Socceroos had been preparing to face Kuwaiti forward Fahad Al Enezi at AAMI Park, a player dubbed in several YouTube clips as one of the fastest soccer players in the world.
But a citizenship dispute that arose in the aftermath of the Gulf Cup prevented the Al Enezi, who has scored three goals in 25 games for the national team, from travelling to a pre-tournament training camp in the United Arab Emirates last month and subsequently ruled him out of making the 23-man squad.
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Kuwait have been tight lipped about the 26-year-old’s omission.
Al-Azraq (“The Blue”) even selected another 26-year-old with the same surname, twice-capped Faisal Al Enezi, in the No.15 jersey the non-selected Al Enezi wore in three Gulf Cup games.
“He did not come,” Kuwait goalkeeper Hameed Youssef said.
“His passport was not ready. He’s good player, but this (issue is) for Fahad, not for me.”
Jorvan Viera had coached Kuwait from August 2013, but an early exit from the Gulf Cup in Saudi Arabia, which included a 5-0 loss to upcoming Asian Cup group opponents Oman, sealed his fate.
Tunisian Nabil Maaloul was appointed on December 7, but as yet has only taken charge of one game — a 1-1 friendly draw against Iraq on December 22.
Kuwait were also set to play the UAE on the Gold Coast last week but that game was cancelled.
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Maaloul previously coached El Jaish in the same Qatari league Socceroo Mark Bresciano plays in, and the Australia midfielder said Maaloul had been successful at club level.
“His experience will probably help the Kuwaiti team because he’s coached other national teams as well,” Bresciano said.
“Al Jaish played an attacking brand of football when he was coaching there, but we still haven’t seen a game of him coaching the Kuwaiti team.
“But we would expect teams like Kuwait coming to Australia to play against Australia to maybe try to close down every possible way of us creating or scoring goals.”
Despite the distractions, Youssef said Kuwait’s players were still positive ahead of the Asian Cup.
“It is important that we not lose first game,” Youssef said.
“We will make good result. It’s a hard game, not easy, but for two teams, not just Kuwait.”
Originally published as Asian Cup 2015: Kuwait ready to upset Socceroos in tournament opener
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