The Omani national team aspires to open a new page in the Asian Cup Qatar 2023 by reaching the final rounds of the tournament, after failing in the past four participations to achieve satisfactory results for its fans.
The draw placed the Omani team in Group Six alongside Saudi Arabia, the 3-time Asian Cup champion, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan.
Establishing
The Omani Football Association was founded in 1978 under the chairmanship of the then Minister of National Heritage and Culture, Faisal bin Ali Al Said, and joined the Arab and International Federations immediately after its founding, before joining the Asian Football Confederation in 1980.
The first Omani team played in the third Gulf Cup in Kuwait in 1974. At that time, it played 3 matches, losing to Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Then it returned and participated in the fourth edition of the Gulf Cup in 1976 in Qatar, before announcing the establishment of the Omani Federation for the game two years later.
Asia Cup
The Omani national team qualified for the Asian Cup finals for the fifth time in its history, and for the first time it will participate in three consecutive editions of the continental tournament. The most notable achievement for the national team was that it surpassed the group stage for the first time in the UAE edition in 2019, but it lost to Iran by two goals to nothing in the final match.
The difficulty of scoring is the real dilemma for the Omani national team, as the team failed to score in 54% of its matches in the Asian Cup finals (7 out of 13), but it equaled its highest scoring tally in the last edition in 2019 (4 goals), which was achieved in the 2004 edition. .
For the third time, the Omani national team will face its Thai counterpart in the group stage of the Asian Cup after two previous confrontations in 2004 and 2007. For the second time in a row, Oman will play against a team from Central Asia after it faced Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the last edition of the continental tournament.
The Red Team qualified for the Asian Cup finals after finishing second in the fifth group of qualifiers, which included Qatar, Oman, India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Qatar topped the group standings with 22 points from 8 matches, and Oman came second with 15 points from 7 matches, 7 points for India, 6 points for Afghanistan, and 2 points for Bangladesh.
📋 List of our first national team for the internal and external camps in the United Arab Emirates. pic.twitter.com/OzT7VcnVCc
– Omani national team (@Oman_NT) December 10, 2023
The most notable achievement of the Omani national team is that it won the Gulf Championship title twice, in the 19th edition, which was held in Muscat after it won the final match over the Saudi team, and in the 23rd edition, which was held in Kuwait, after defeating the Emirati team on penalties on penalties.
🎥 #video | “Red” begins the preparation mission and sets its sights on Asia 🌏 #With_you_red 🔝🇴🇲 pic.twitter.com/kavlJA6u1M
– Omani national team (@Oman_NT) December 12, 2023
Omani national team striker Imad Al Hosani is the historic top scorer for the Red Team in the Asian Cup with 3 goals, followed by Mohsen Al Ghassani with two goals.
Oman national team matches in Group 6 of the Asian Cup
- January 16, 2024: Saudi Arabia x Oman (Khalifa International Stadium)
- January 21: Oman x Thailand (Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium).
- January 26: Oman x Kyrgyzstan (Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium).
Team coach
On January 19, 2020, the Omani-Croat Federation appointed Branko Ivankovic as coach of the national team, succeeding the Dutchman Erwin Koeman, who was dismissed from his position after exiting from the first round of the Gulf Cup.
🗞 The Board of Directors of the Omani Football Association approves the appointment of Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic as coach of the first national team, along with his assistant technical staff. pic.twitter.com/lFYedoOSte
– Oman Football Association (@OmanFA) January 19, 2020
Ivankovic (65 years old) knows Gulf football well, as he previously coached Al-Ittifaq (2011-2012) and Al-Ahly (for a brief period in 2019) from Saudi Arabia, and Al-Wahda from the UAE (2012-2013). He also supervised the Iranian Persepolis between 2015 and 2019.
This will be Ivankovic's second experience at the helm of a national team after he supervised the Iranian national team starting in 2002 and led it to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
