{"id":2813,"date":"2017-04-12T21:51:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T12:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2017-04-12T21:51:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T12:51:34","slug":"gallery-syria-iran-womens-asian-cup-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2017\/04\/12\/gallery-syria-iran-womens-asian-cup-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"GALLERY: Syria, Iran women’s teams show potential in Asian Cup qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

After over a week of matches across the content, the field for the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup has been set with four qualifying teams joining hosts Jordan as well as 2014 top-three finishers Japan, Australia, and China.<\/p>\n

Amongst the 19 teams participating in April’s qualifiers were Syria and Iran, two sides whose struggles represent the challenges faced by women’s teams from Central and West Asia.<\/p>\n

While neither managed to top Group D and book their ticket to the final tournament, Football Tribe Vietnam was on hand to document their inspiring\u00a0performances in Hanoi.<\/p>\n

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Syria joined the field of an AFC competition for the first time in their 11-year history. Their last match\u00a0took place in 2011, when the team participated in the group stage of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) Women’s Championship.<\/p>\n

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In order to prepare for this tournament, Syria’s players were forced\u00a0to overcome not only stifling cultural customs of the strict Islamic country, but also the harsh realities of a brutal civil war now entering its seventh year.<\/p>\n

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“We have the power to participate, and we have the hope that we are going to make good results,” 21-year-old striker Noor Jrees told the BBC<\/em> before the tournament.\u00a0“Of course with all the support we have and the coaches who are helping a lot, we will make good results.”<\/p>\n

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It was to\u00a0little surprise that the Syrians struggled after six years of inactivity, conceding 38 goals in four matches.<\/p>\n

While their campaign started promisingly with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Singapore, the team struggled against hosts Vietnam just two days later in an 11-0 loss.<\/p>\n

Similarly lopsided losses against Myanmar (14-0) and Iran (12-0) followed.<\/p>\n

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Regardless of\u00a0the disappointing scorelines, Syria’s participation in qualifying marked a significant milestone for the team. Head coach Abd Alghni Tatteesh emphasized the team’s desire to demonstrate that “[their]\u00a0country’s resilience and passion for football are\u00a0equal to anyone in the world.”<\/p>\n

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Fellow Group D participants Iran were also looking to impress in Hanoi as they represented the Central Asian Football Association for the first time.<\/p>\n

Team Melli Zanan are perhaps best\u00a0known for their brief exile\u00a0from international competitions due to FIFA’s now-rescinded hijab ban, but\u00a0previous to the formation of the CAFA they were a powerhouse in West Asia with three runners-up finishes in the WAFF Women’s Championship.<\/p>\n

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Iran’s narrow 2-0 loss to Myanmar on opening day showed hints of their quality, which they went on to more freely demonstrate in a 6-0 win over Singapore that kept them in contention.<\/p>\n

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But a 6-1 loss to hosts Vietnam ended their hopes for a trip to Jordan in 2018, although they were able to\u00a0take solace in a 12-0 win over Syria on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

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22-year-old defender Fatemeh Adeli’s disappointment was evident following the loss to Vietnam, which put qualification to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France out of reach.<\/p>\n

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Despite failing to reach\u00a0the finals, Iran head coach Maryam Azmoon expressed satisfaction that the qualifying session was a positive experience for his side. With eyes on qualification for the 2022 edition of the AFC’s top women’s tournament, Team Melli Zanan will hold a training camp in Hungary later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After over a week of matches across the content, the field for the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup has been set with four qualifying teams joining hosts Jordan as well as 2014 top-three finishers Japan, Australia, and China. Amongst the 19 teams participating in April’s qualifiers were Syria and Iran, two sides whose struggles represent the challenges faced by women’s teams from Central and West Asia. While neither managed to top Group D and book their ticket to the final tournament, Football Tribe Vietnam was on hand to document their inspiring\u00a0performances in Hanoi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":2821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,28,41,27],"tags":[664,665,85,95,581,663],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}