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AFC Asian Qualifiers
The names of Ahmed Rahdi, Raad Hammoudi and Hussein Saeed are etched indelibly into Iraq’s football folklore, sitting proudly alongside the rest of the 22-man squad that represented the nation on their debut FIFA World Cup appearance in Mexico in 1986.
Such was the country’s status within Asian football at the time, few would have predicted that almost four decades later Iraq would not have made a return visit to the FIFA World Cup Finals.
That, though, is a situation Jesus Casas is determined to change when the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to 26 kicks off in September.
“It will be a dream for us to qualify,” the Spanish coach tells the-AFC.com ahead of Thursday’s draw. “Obviously I have a lot of confidence in my players, in my team but it won’t be easy.
“The next round will have hard opponents in each match because these are the best teams in Asia. But we have the possibility, I’m sure."
#AsianCup2023 | Round of 16 : Iraq 2 - 3 Jordan
“We saw it at the (AFC) Asian Cup (Qatar 2023™); one red card, one goal, one mistake, with one little detail the match can change. I have great confidence in my team, I’m sure we have possibilities, but we have to wait.
“The most important thing is to go from one match to the next, to focus on this because to think about the whole qualification does not make sense. We need to be focused on the first match and after that we’ll be focused on the second match.”
Despite their limited FIFA World Cup record, Iraq’s status among Asia’s upper tier has rarely - if ever – been in doubt, even with the turmoil the nation has endured because of war and social upheaval since the early 1990s.
It was reconfirmed in March when Casas’ side picked up a fourth win in a row in Group F of the Preliminary Joint Qualification – Round 2 for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027™.
That victory, a comprehensive 5-0 defeat of the Philippines, guaranteed the team’s progress to the next round as well as to the 2027 edition of the continental championship and underlined the improvements within the team seen during the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023.
During his first year at the helm Casas had led Iraq to the 2023 Gulf Cup title while in January his team secured top spot in their group in Doha, with their 2-1 win over four-time champions Japan the most eye-catching of a series of impressive performances in Qatar before their surprise Round of 16 elimination against Jordan.
The victory over Hajime Moriyasu’s side, who went into the tournament as runaway favourites, as well as wins over Vietnam and Indonesia signaled Iraq’s growing status as a nation capable once more of challenging for the major prizes within the Asian game.
#AsianCup2023 | Group D : Iraq 2 - 1 Japan
“It wasn’t easy to win all our matches,” the 50-year-old says of his team’s performance so far in the FIFA World Cup preliminaries. “We had some targets, because the main target was to qualify for the next round and to the next Asian Cup was the other target.
“We wanted to have an opportunity to build up the national team and our FIFA ranking. We knew the seeding in the next round depends on your FIFA ranking and fortunately we passed Saudi Arabia and we will be in the second level.
“But it doesn’t mean anything because the next round will be very, very hard."
“In football it’s impossible to win easily. If you look at all the qualifying matches, I think only Japan, Australia and us, only three teams, won all their matches and in each match you need talent, you need luck and you need a lot of things.
“It’s impossible to not make a mistake in a match. I think we deserved all the wins. We were superior in all matches and we had luck sometimes; in Vietnam for example, or against the Philippines. But in both games we deserved the victory. Football is like this.”
Casas took over in Iraq in November 2022 and since his arrival the former Spain assistant coach has sought to blend both home-grown and overseas-born talents into a team that is also attempting to integrate the country’s latest emerging talents.
With the Iraqis qualifying for the Olympic Games following a third-place finish at the AFC U23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024™ in May under Radhi Shenaishil, Casas has access to a pool of talented younger players that will add considerable weight to the country’s status.
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“From the first moment when I arrived in the Iraq national team I had a clear idea,” he says. “We need to be a family, we need to be joint. There’s no other way. If one player thinks with another mentality or has another idea I think it’s impossible for him to be with us.
“I didn’t have problems with different players, I don’t mind if they’re born in Iraq or Sweden or England. If you can see the atmosphere inside the national team, we haven’t any problems. All the players joke between themselves and that’s fantastic news for us.
“We have a lot of young players in the national team and in the Olympic team and in the future Iraq will continue growing. Over the last 15 or 20 years in Iraq it’s been a very hard situation for the country because Iraq has great potential in football.
“I hope in the next years we will recover our status. The young players in the Olympic team will be with us in natural time.”
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In a nation as passionate about the sport as Iraq, all that promise increases expectations to succeed. Casas, though, views those demands as part of his job.
“In football, in all places, coaches have pressure,” he says. “I feel the love from Iraq. I feel the people. The fans in Iraq are very excited, they are very passionate and they are with the national team and the staff and with me.
“I feel their love. We try to win. This is football and it’s not easy. Sometimes we lose, but I always say we need the people and I’m sure they will be with us.”
Photos: AFP, AFC
