May 12th, 2024: This Week in Palestinian Football

Women's National Team lands in Dublin, Swedish side Sirius keeps churning out Palestinian talent, and a look at the form players ahead of the Lebanon qualifier

Palestine’s Women’s National Team will make history on Wednesday when they play their first ever match on European soil against Bohemian FC in Dublin. Palestine’s Women’s side has been slowly improving in recent months thanks to a formula that has seen them mine the diaspora in North America and Europe for talent.

Union Berlin’s Nour Yousef was the standout player for the team in their run to the WAFF Championship semifinal back in February. That campaign featured a 1-0 win over Syria and a 3-0 win over Iraq. A 5-0 loss to Jordan shows how far the team has to go to be considered the cream of the crop in West Asia but more experiences like the one in Dalymount Park on May 15th should help the team.

Palestinians Abroad

The Hammer of Hittin, Amr Kaddoura, turned in another standout performance for Landskrona in their 3-1 win over GIF Sundsvall. The goalkeeper saved a penalty and helped keep his side top of the Superettan table with an undefeated start through seven games that also featured three clean sheets and a league low four goals allowed.

Mahmoud Eid turned in another standout performance as Bangkok United trounced Trat FC 5-0. A goal and an assist brings his league total to nine in each category and with two games to go he could hit 10G/10A (Eid has also won two peanlty kicks) in league play. He has already hit double figures in each category when factoring in his goal contributions in the Asian Champions League.

Wessam Abou Ali continues to roll in Egypt he was rested against Baladiya on the weekend but notched a goal and an assist against Ittihad Alexandria in the midweek. Al-Ahly is making up league games they missed out on during their African Champions League campaign. Should they win all their games in hand they will overtake Pyramids FC as league leaders. Abou Ali has contributed a whopping four goals and three assists in just four starts for the Club of the Century.

It is not smiles all around. Mohammed Saleh’s season is over after Muaither was knocked out of the Emir Cup on penalty kicks. The defender assisted the opening goal but was forced off with a deep bone bruise after his own teammate smashed into him. There are other areas of concern on the backline. Michel Termanini has been frozen out of Kazma since the Asian Cup and Yaser Hamed is not a consistent start for Zamalek. The team’s captain Musab Al-Battat is currently working his way back to fitness for Al-Faisaly and his backup has been mysteriously dropped from National Bank in spite of three very good performances for the Egyptian side.

Also on the injury front Omar Faraj’s debut is in doubt as he has been ruled out until the summer break in Sweden. His participation with the national team will largely be contingent on the national team being able to convince the player and the club to risk him with a summer transfer to Holland in the works.

Yousef Salech- yet another Sirius Palestinian superstar