The latest news from Soccer Daily says that our national team rivals Qatar have unexpectedly changed their manager for the upcoming Asian Cup group stage, a change that seems to be unexpected good news for our team.
Less than 40 days before the opening match of the Asian Cup, Qatar announced a change of manager on the eve of the group stage. Portuguese manager Queiroz was dismissed after less than a year in the job, and Qatar quickly announced that Spanish coach Max Lopes would take over and lead the team in the Asian Cup.
Although 61-year-old Lopez has a wealth of coaching experience at Espanyol, having been at the helm of the Blue and Whites' ladder and first-team, he knows the Qatari youth soccer system inside out, having been at Hope Football Academy since 2012 and then coached Qatar's 'base' club, Qatar Ogben, in Europe for three years. In 2017, he replaced Leko, who had left St. Teresa's to become part of the Brugge hierarchy, and returned to Qatar in 2018, where he led Wakrah to a successful first division finish and has a deep knowledge of the Qatar League. Clearly, Lopez has become a timely appointment in the eyes of the Qatar Football Association.
For our national team, the change of opposing coaches has certainly provided room for new tactical responses. The new coach will have plenty of time to observe the players and adjust their tactics after taking over. Given the first two matches of the group stage, our team has only four matches left to prepare for, and the match with Qatar will be a crucial one. Although Lopez has a lot of experience in coaching, he is still young at the national team level, and compared to Queiroz, who is more familiar with Asian soccer, this gap cannot be ignored.
