June 11th, 2023: This Week in Palestinian Football

National Team arrives in Indonesia, Olympic Team draws Jordan before heading to Karbala for the WAFF U23 Championship, Futsal team beats Mauritania, New kit set to be debuted.

This week promises to be a busy week for supporters of the national team. The Futsal, Olympic, and Senior national teams are all in action in games that carry importance in planning for the future cycle. Below is a quick look at the diary:

F: Palestine vs Egypt (June 11th, 19:00)

U23: Palestine vs Syria (June 12th, 19:00)

MNT: Indonesia vs Palestine (June 14th, 15:30)

U23: Palestine vs Iran (June 16th, 19:00)

(Jerusalem Time)

There could be even more games should the Futsal team plot a path to the knockout rounds at the Arab Cup (more on that below).

Futsal Team looks to add to success in Arab Competitions

Palestine has had a nice run in Arab competitions over the past year. Last summer the U20 team made the semifinals of the competition, securing wins over Sudan and Jordan before exiting the tournament against eventual winners Saudi Arabia.

The Beach Soccer team repeated the feat last month beating Saudi Arabia in the quarterfinals before losing by one goal to eventual champions Egypt.

Now the Futsal Team looks to make it a trifecta of success. Things did not go to plan in the opener (a 6-0 loss to Iraq) but the team rebounded well against Mauritania registering a 7-4 win.

That result leaves the team in the driver’s seat heading into their final group stage game against Egypt. A win will send Palestine through as one of the top two teams in Group C, a draw will also qualify the team as one of the third place teams.

There are even permutations that could send Palestine through with a narrow loss. Lebanon play Comoros, with both sides needing a win to have any chance of going through to the knockouts. Comoros (-10) and Lebanon (-7) have a worse goal difference than Palestine (-4) adding to Palestine’s benefit is the fact that the two teams play before Palestine this evening. In summation, Palestine will know exactly what they need to do to advance before a ball is kicked in their game in Jeddah at 19:00 local time.

Tempo Kits set for debut

After announcing the sponsorship in February, fans and players alike were excited to don the new kits. It was widely expected to happen against Bahrain during the March FIFA window. That did not happen. Al-Fida’i ran out 2-1 winners against their hosts in the blandest of white Joma jerseys.

We can now confirm that the team will debut the kits in this window and the team has already played in training gear provided by the Egyptian kitwear manufacturer.

In a bizzare twist, the Futsal team is currently wearing Joma and the Olympic Team is also expected to wear the old jerseys having trained in Joma this month.

National Team beats Sahab in closed door friendly