Muscat: It will be the first official assignment for Spanish coach Pablo Herrero Fernandez, head coach of the Oman national U-17 football team, as he will lead the team at the West Asian U-17 Championships which will be held in Jordan from September 21 to 30.
Coach Pablo Herrero Fernandez, who took charge of the team earlier this year, will eye a top show for the team at the West Asian event.
In line with the intensive preparation plan for the West Asian championships, the team arrived on Tuesday in Kuwait City to have a short preparatory camp ahead of the Asian prestigious championships.
The camp will be for a duration of five days as the team will travel on Sunday to Jordan to take part in the Asian championships.
The final warm-up ahead of the tournament will feature two friendly games against Kuwait team on Thursday and Saturday.
The junior national team ended their domestic warm-up gathering in Muscat on Monday as they had a local friendly match against Al Habsi Football Academy.
The match which was played at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex ended 5-1 for the national team. Oman’s goals were netted by Taha al Hinai, Al Haitham al Shukaili, Al Harith al Mushaikhi (2 goals) and Abdullah al Maqbali. Another preparatory camp took place in May and witnessed a local match against Muscat U-19 club which finished at 1-1 draw.
The head coach Pablo Herrero Fernandez picked up 23 probables for the Oman squad at Asian event namely: Fernas al Jabri, Helmi al Balushi, Al Harith al Mushaikhi, Yasser al Balushi, Momen al Souli, Anas al Ghadani, Tamim a Buraiki, Hamza al Saadi, Jassim al Dhaeen, Marwan al Noobi, Emad al Hadi, Haitham Khareef, Al Hussain al Balushi, Abdullah al Maqbali, Mohammed al Balushi, Abdul Nasser al Hasani, Zaher al Aysari, Abdullah al Rawahi, Adnan al Mushaifri, Taha al Hinai, Al Haitham al Shukaili, Mohammed Ghanim and Syaf Mustafa.
The Asian event in Jordan will feature the attendance of eight teams which will be distributed into two groups. Oman is clubbed in group A besides the defending champion Yemen, Iraq and the hosts Jordan.
The Group B comprises Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Kuwait. The toppers from each group will advance to the semifinals.
Oman will commence their campaign with a match against the hosts Jordan in the opening day on June 21. Then they will face Iraq on June 23. Oman will take on Yemen in the concluding fixture of the group stage on June 25.
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