Syrian national soccer team

Syria
الاتحاد العربي السوري لكرة القدم

Nickname (s)

The red eagles

Association

Syrian Arab Football Association

confederacy

AFC

Technical sponsor

Jako

Head coach

Nabil Maaloul (since 2020)

Record scorer

Firas Al Khatib (36)

Record player

Maher Al-Sayed (108)

Home stadium

Abbasid Stadium,
Aleppo International Stadium

FIFA code

SYR

FIFA rank

79th (1314 points)
(as of July 16, 2020)

First jersey

Second jersey

statistics

First international match Turkey 7-0 Syria ( Ankara , Turkey ; November 20, 1949 )

Biggest victory Syria 13-0 Oman ( Cairo , Egypt ; September 6, 1965 )

Biggest defeats Greece 8-0 Syria ( Athens , Greece ; November 25, 1949 ) Egypt 8-0 Syria ( Alexandria , Egypt ; October 12, 1951 )

Successes in tournaments

Asian Championship

Participation in the finals

6 ( first : 1980 )

Best results

Preliminary round 1980 , 1984 , 1988 , 1996 , 2011 , 2019

(As of March 25, 2020)

The Syrian national football team is the selection team of the Syrian Arab Football Association . She was trained by the German coach Bernd Stange from 2018 to 2019 and played her home games in the Abbasid Stadium in Damascus until the beginning of the Syrian Civil War . So far, the national team has never qualified for a World Cup finals. An Asian Championships it participated six times, but never got it beyond the first round.

history

The first game of the Syrian national team was also the first competitive game: In qualifying for the 1950 World Cup, they lost 7-0 to Turkey on November 20, 1949 away from Turkey . The first home game - again in the World Cup qualification, this time for 1958 - against Sudan on May 24, 1957 ended 1-1. It wasn't until January 8, 1972, that the first win, a 1-0 win over Algeria in a tournament in Iraq . However, this was only the sixth game of the Syrian national team, as the Syrians had meanwhile played in a joint team with Egypt (see United Arab Republic ).

In July 2007 Syria was ranked 109th in the FIFA world rankings and 14th in Asia .

The playing colors of the Syrian national team are red or white.

The Abbasid Stadium ( Al-Abbasiyyin ) in Damascus holds 45,000 spectators and functions as the national stadium, although national team games are also played in other cities.

Due to the ruling civil war , the team has had to play their home games on neutral ground since 2011. Syria had to play the World Cup qualifier against Tajikistan in July 2011 in the Jordanian capital Amman . The qualifying matches for the 2015 Asian Cup took place in the Iranian capital Tehran . The 2018 World Cup qualifying matches were played first in Oman and then in Malaysia .

National team successes

So far, Syria's senior team has not won a major title. The greatest success is winning the Mediterranean Games in 1987. In 1963, 1966 and 1988 she took second place in the “Arab National Team Cup”.

At the FIFA World Youth Championship in 2005, the Syrian selection reached the round of 16, after having played in the group stage and a. was able to prevail against Italy 2-1. In the round of the last 16, the youth team from the Middle East had to admit defeat by a 1-0 defeat against eventual world champions Brazil.

International matches

From 1949 to 2006 Syria played 281 international matches (including unofficial matches), of which 101 were won and 115 lost, 65 matches ended in a draw. The goal balance is 410: 386. The most frequent international opponent was Kuwait with 27 comparisons, followed by Jordan (21) and Saudi Arabia (20).

The web links contain a link to a list of all international matches from 1949 to 2005.

The only game so far against a team from German-speaking countries took place in the context of the 1980 Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union : In the first round of the football tournament, Syria lost 5-0 to the GDR . The Syrians have not yet played against (overall) Germany , Austria , Switzerland or Liechtenstein .

Participation in the Olympic Games

1900 to 1968	not participated
1972 in Munich	not qualified
1976 in Montreal	not participated
1980 in Moscow	Preliminary round (qualified as a replacement for Malaysia)
1984 in Los Angeles	not qualified
1988 in Seoul	not qualified

After 1988 the senior national team stopped taking part in the Olympic Games and the qualifying games. An Olympic team has not yet qualified.

Syria and the World Cup

Syria has participated in a qualification ten times, first for the 1950 World Cup , but has never qualified for a World Cup finals. The Syrians narrowly failed to qualify for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico , when they qualified for the final qualifying round, but after a 0-0 first leg they lost 3-1 to Iraq in the second leg in the Saudi Arabian Ta'if .

In qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany , Syria was eliminated after the first qualifying round. Behind Bahrain they finished second in group 6, but only the group winners got one round further. The Syrian team still had every chance of progressing on the penultimate matchday, as it came to a direct duel against the rivals and eventual group winners in Damascus : After 21 minutes, after goals from Shekhelshra and Alhoussain, they led 2-0, even during the first Mohamad Adnan scored the next goal for Bahrain at half time. With this result there would have been a long distance duel between the two teams for group victory on the last day of the match. The fans in the Abbasidenstadion could hope until the 92nd minute (!), But then Salmeen's equalization to 2-2 put an abrupt end to all hopes. With this draw, Bahrain had qualified for the second round prematurely, Syria failed again and finally lost the last, insignificant group game against Kyrgyzstan . The Syrian Association cut the players' compensation for November due to this 0: 1. As a special event, it should be mentioned that the qualifying game against Tajikistan on June 9th in Homs had to be canceled due to a power failure and was repeated the following day. At the time of the cancellation (during the second half) Syria had led 3-1, in the rescheduling it was finally 2-1.

Due to the early failure in the 2006 World Cup qualification, Syria was unset in the 2010 World Cup qualification and initially had to survive two qualifying rounds. In the first round, the opponents from Afghanistan were defeated 3: 0 and 2: 1, before Indonesia was eliminated in the second round 4: 1 and 7: 0. The group stage draw in Durban revealed that Syria would face Iran , Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates . On the final day of the match, the Syrian team needed a 3-0 victory over the Emirates to qualify, but they narrowly missed this goal at 3-1 and were eliminated.

Results of Syria in previous World Cup qualifications

In this table, H stands for a home game, A for an away game, and N for a game on a neutral court.

World Cup year and country	Quali group	opponent	Result
1950 in Brazil	II	Turkey Turkey	A 0: 7
1954 in Switzerland	not participated
1958 in Sweden	-	Sudan 1956 Sudan	A 0: 1, H 1: 1
1962 in Chile	not started
1970 in Mexico	not participated
1974 in the Federal Republic of Germany	Subgroup B / 2	Iran 1964 Iran	A 0: 1, H 1: 0
		Korea North North Korea	H 2: 1, A 2: 0
		Kuwait Kuwait	H 2: 1, A 2: 0
1978 in Argentina	Group 3	Iran 1964 Iran	A 0: 2, H 0: 2
1978 in Argentina	Group 3	Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia	A 0: 2, H 2: 1
1982 in Spain	Group 2 (tournament in Saudi Arabia)	Bahrain 1972 Bahrain	0: 1
		Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia	0: 2
		Qatar Qatar	1: 2
		Iraq 1963 Iraq	1: 2
1986 in Mexico	Subgroup 2A	Kuwait Kuwait	H 1: 0, A 0: 0
	Subgroup 2A	Yemen Arab Republic North Yemen	A 1: 1, H 1: 0
	2nd round	Bahrain 1972 Bahrain	A 1: 1, H 1: 0
	Finals	Iraq 1963 Iraq	H 0: 0, A 1: 3 (in Taif)
1990 in Italy	Group 2	Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia	A 4: 5, H 0: 0
1990 in Italy	Group 2	Yemen Yemen	H 2: 0, A 1: 0
1994 in the USA	Group B (tournaments in Iran and Syria)	Iran Iran	1: 1, 1: 1
		Oman Oman	0: 0, 2: 1
		Taiwan Taiwan	2-0, 8-1
1998 in France	Group 2 (tournaments in Syria and Iran)	Iran Iran	0: 1, 2: 2
		Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan	1: 2
		Maldives Maldives	12-0, 12-0
2002 in Japan and South Korea	Group 1	Oman Oman	H 0: 2, A 3: 3
		Laos Laos	H 11: 0, A 9: 0
		Philippines Philippines	H 12: 0, A 5: 1
2006 in Germany	Group 6	Bahrain Bahrain	H 2: 2, A 1: 2
		Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan	H 0: 1, A 1: 1
		Tajikistan Tajikistan	H 2: 1, A 1: 0
2010 in South Africa	1 round	Afghanistan 2002 Afghanistan	H 3: 0, A 2: 1 (in Dushanbe)
2010 in South Africa	2nd round	Indonesia Indonesia	A 4: 1, H 7: 0
2014 in Brazil	2nd round	Tajikistan Tajikistan	N 2: 1, A 4: 0
2018 in Russia	2nd round	AfghanistanAfghanistan Japan Cambodia Singapore Japan Cambodia Singapore
Remarks: ↑ The away game was rated 0-2 because Syria withdrew because they thought their own team was too weak. ↑ The first game against Kyrgyzstan was not played ↑ Both games were then rated 3-0 for Tajikistan, as Syria used George Mourad, an ineligible player. Syria was also excluded from the qualification. [1]

Syria and the Asian Cup

The Syrians were able to qualify at least four times for the continental championship in Asia (1980 in Kuwait , 1984 in Singapore , 1988 in Qatar and most recently in 1996 in the Emirates ), but never got beyond the preliminary round. For the first time you took part in the qualification in 1972 , then you failed at Kuwait .

In qualifying for the 2004 final in Japan , Turkmenistan and the Emirates proved too strong for the Syrian team. Only against the later group bottom Sri Lanka there were two wins, in addition there was a draw against the Turkmens. So in the end, the third place was once again in the preliminary group. Syria did not play for the last group game in Ashgabat , Turkmenistan .

During qualifying for the 2007 Asian Cup , Syrian faced Iran , South Korea and Taiwan . Although the Syrians drew in both Tehran and Seoul , the home defeats to group favorites meant they were eliminated in qualifying.

After 15 years, the team was again represented at the Asian Cup, but in Qatar Syria was eliminated in the preliminary round.

Football Asian Cup 1972 - not qualified
Football Asian Cup 1976 - withdrawn
Football Asian Cup 1980 - preliminary round
Soccer Asian Cup 1984 - preliminary round
Football Asian Cup 1988 - preliminary round
Football Asian Cup 1992 - not qualified
Football Asia Cup 1996 - preliminary round
Football Asian Cup 2000 - not qualified
2004 Asian Football Championship - not qualified
Football Asian Cup 2007 - not qualified
Soccer Asian Cup 2011 - preliminary round
Football Asian Cup 2015 - not qualified
Football Asian Cup 2019 - preliminary round

Syria and the West Asian Championship

At the tournament of the West Asian Football Association, which has taken place six times since 2000, Syria reached the final three times, but had to admit defeat to Iran twice (2000: 0: 1, 2004: 1: 4). The first win of this competition was therefore not made until 2012. In the competition in your own country in 2002 you reached fourth place, in 2007 you made it to the semi-finals again.