HONG KONG, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Afghanistan begins its first World Cup qualifiers since returning to Taliban rule on Thursday, but coach Abdullah Almutairi is looking to put politics aside and focus his team on beating Mongolia. .
Afghanistan, who have so far fallen short of qualifying for the World Cup, are hoping to advance to the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 tournament, but Al Mutairi and his team face many challenges. ing.
Unable to play in front of their own fans due to the security situation in Afghanistan, they are playing a ‘home’ game in neighboring Tajikistan before playing Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar in their return game on Tuesday.
“Everyone thinks we’re all monsters, but that’s not true,” the Kuwaiti coach told Reuters about how his team has been viewed since the Taliban returned to power two years ago. I talked about Iruka.
“You can’t judge all people because of one or two people or because of the political situation.
“We’re just a soccer team. It’s very difficult, but we’ll do our best.”
The draw is one of 10 competitions across the continent involving the lowest ranking countries in the federation, with the winners advancing to a second round group phase involving seeded nations such as Japan and Australia.
Afghanistan’s playoff winner will face 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar, India and Al Mutairi’s home country Kuwait, with the top two teams advancing to the next stage of qualification.
The third and fourth place finishers in their groups will advance to the qualifying tournament for the 2027 Continental Championships to be held in Saudi Arabia.
“Our goal is to qualify for the Asian Cup in 2027,” Al Mutairi said. “I’ll do my best from now on.”
Since taking over as coach in April, Al-Mutairi said he has managed to unite and unify the team, which is made up of players from inside and outside Afghanistan, despite facing many challenges.
“We’re trying to show the whole team that we’re in the same pain,” he said. “We are humans.
“It doesn’t matter your background, your culture, where you sleep, where you live, where you play; it doesn’t matter.
“The most important thing is that we have the same Afghan blood in our veins, even if we have different passports, even if we were born outside the country and have never been to Afghanistan before. Even if you don’t, you can’t change it. None of this matters.”
“What’s important is that the team plays for the country. It used to be a big problem, but now it’s resolved.”
Reporting by Michael Church; Editing by Peter Rutherford
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