AMSTERDAM: No coaching carousel spins faster than those in West Asia.
Since World Cup qualification began in October 2023 all 12 Arab nations in the Asian Football Confederation have changed managers.
The latest tactician to be given his marching orders was Jesus Casas who recently left the Iraq post after two years and five months at the helm.
It was widely tipped that the Iraq Football Association would bring in a big name to replace Casas and lead the team to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1986.
A leading candidate quickly emerged — Al-Jazira manager Hussein Ammouta who earned plaudits by leading Jordan to the 2023 Asian Cup final.
The Moroccan has strong links to the country’s top brass.
The IFA’s President Adnan Dirjal coached Ammouta at Al-Sadd in the late 1990s. And when Ammouta became manager of the club a decade-and-a-half later he recruited the IFA’s Vice President Younis Mahmoud to lead the line for the Qatari powerhouse.
Everything was set to unveil the 55-year-old this week, according to the Iraqi media and Twitterati. Then it was off, leaving the Lions of Mesopotamia without a manager with less than five weeks before their next World Cup qualifier.
Addressing the media in the aftermath, Mahmoud said there were seven candidates, amongst them three foreigners. He was coy about the details and played up the virtues of having an Iraqi in the role.
“We are still in negotiations and we will announce in the coming days. It could be Ammouta. I don’t know anything about what has been said, I leave these details to (president) Adnan (Dirjal) as he is a former manager and knows more than me.”
It was not supposed to be like this for Iraq. A new board at the IFA led by Dirjal had wanted to put in place a process and foster stability. They had turned to former Spain assistant Casas to overhaul the team.
In spite of his early departure, Casas has the third-longest tenure as Iraqi manager, with only Ammo Baba and Srecko Katenac lasting longer. This indicates why this football-mad nation has underachieved since lifting the 2007 AFC Asian Cup title.
Early success brought the Andalucian time. Winning the Gulf Cup on home soil and ending a 35-year drought won the fans over. A year later, when Iraq was eliminated at the hands of Jordan at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, Casas was spared criticism due to the controversial decision by referee Alireza Faghani to send off Aymen Hussein in the final quarter of the match.
The Spaniard also won plaudits due to the team’s expansive style which generated a famous win against Japan at the tournament.
Ten goals in four games at the continental showpiece papered over the fact that The Lions of Mesopotamia did not keep a single clean sheet and conceded an average of two goals a game.
That lack of control precipitated a change of thinking on the bench. Casas’ Iraq reemerged in qualification intent to assert control even if it meant boring supporters to death.
It was effective.
Iraq kept a clean sheet in eight of the 10 World Cup qualifiers contested in 2024. They breezed into round three, collecting 16 of 18 points on offer in a group comprising Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
When round three started, the results kept coming in the form of binary scorelines, with only a 3-2 loss away to Korea Republic breaking up the string of 0-0 draws, and 1-0 wins against Kuwait, Jordan, Oman and Palestine.
Iraq sat in sole possession of second place, and an automatic World Cup berth, at the conclusion of Matchday Six in November.
That is when Iraq’s momentum came to a screeching halt. A pitiful defense of their Gulf Cup title in December was a harbinger of things to come.
Team selections became ever more unpredictable, as if Casas was trying to address critics vis-a-vis his lineups. In goal, sometimes Ahmed Bassil would start and others would be excluded from the squad altogether.
Equally bizarre was the chopping and changing of center-backs and midfielders.
Ahmed Yasin and Saad Abdulameer returned from extended international exile to captain the side against Oman and Jordan only to be dropped once again. In defense, Rebin Sulaka has started with seven different center-backs in the space of 12 months.
In a desperate attempt to solve the riddle of who should anchor his defense and pull the strings in attack, Casas changed his formation in what would prove to be his last match at the helm.
Hussein’s 34th minute goal gave Iraq a lead and a switch to a 3-4-3 seemed to be vindicated. Iraq’s defensive frailty however could not be masked like it was in the three other 1-0 wins they had registered in round three.
Palestine pushed and when the equalizer came in the 88th minute so did a mental collapse similar to the one suffered at the hands of Jordan in the Asian Cup Round of 16 encounter.
Following the 2-1 loss, Casas blamed the defeat on a “lack of character” and an inability to see out a result. Whether or not a coaching change will remedy those problems for Iraq is very much an open question.
Casas might have a point about the mental aspect of Iraq’s game. The players, administrators, and media have been engaged in a battle against a perceived conspiracy against them.
Hussein’s first words to the media following the loss to Palestine were used to complain about Amman as a neutral venue and the number of fans in the stands.
Perhaps the favorite tag proved too much for the team and a full embrace of the underdog role while eschewing victimhood is needed.
Iraq can draw on the 2007 Asian Cup win for inspiration when a team led by an interim coach shocked the world.
