Yemen national team in the "Gulf 26": Dreaming of the first victory in history

The Yemeni national team is one of the teams that always participate in the Gulf Cup, but it has not succeeded in achieving a major accomplishment, and has not won any match in the Gulf Championship so far, despite participating in ten versions, so it will seek to break this complex in the "Gulf 26" version that will be held in Kuwait starting from December 21.

Since joining the tournament in 2003 until now, the Yemeni national team has not succeeded in achieving anything better than exiting the group stage of the tournament, and the task seems complicated in the Kuwait 2024 version, as the team is in a difficult group.

The Yemeni national team will participate for the 11th time in the Gulf Cup Championship, and has not achieved any victory in 33 matches (six draws and 27 losses), and has scored 12 goals against 84 goals, and is the only one among the Gulf teams that has not achieved any victory and is considered one of the weakest among them.

The main mission of the Yemeni national team in the 26th Gulf Championship, led by Algerian coach Noureddine Ould Ali, will be to achieve the first victory in the history of the Gulf Championship, although it will compete in the very difficult second group that includes the teams of Iraq, the champion of the last edition, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Therefore, achieving positive results against these big, strong teams will not be easy, especially with the modest capabilities of his squad against the striking power possessed by the other teams in the group.

The Yemeni national team awaits a great deal of work after the end of the Gulf Cup Championship in order to achieve the dream of qualifying for the 2027 Asian Cup Championship, as it competes in the second group of the Asian play-off alongside the national teams of Lebanon, Bhutan and Brunei.

The team must top the group in order to qualify directly for the Asian Championship, noting that the Yemeni team has qualified once in its history, in the 2019 edition.

Yemen national team dreams of achieving a historic achievement

Algerian Noureddine Ould Ali has been in charge of training the Yemeni national team since the beginning of this year. He previously led the Palestine national team and the Algerian national team under 23 years old. The Yemeni national team is the third team in which he has assumed the responsibility of the first man, after previously working as an assistant in the Bahrain national team and the Mouloudia Algiers team.

Ould Ali aims to change the Yemeni reality in the Gulf Championship, and hopes to succeed in achieving the first victory in the history of the championship to please the Yemeni people who have been going through a very difficult period for years.

With the team captain Abdulwasee Al-Matari, a player from Sitra in Bahrain, hope may seem close in light of the player’s experience, but the mission is more difficult and deeper than just achieving a win in the competition.

The group includes three teams, all of which are in the third round of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, so participation may be a good opportunity to gain experience that may benefit the Yemeni team in upcoming Gulf, Asian and Arab events.

The Yemeni Football Association was founded in 1962, and joined the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in 1980, and the Asian Football Confederation in the same year.

The biggest win for the Yemeni national team in its history dates back to the year 2000 when it swept its counterpart, the Bhutanese national team, 11/2, while the biggest loss was 0/14 against North Korea in 1966.

Source: Al-Araby Al-Jadeed + Kora