Riyadh: Iraq assistant coach Abdul Kareem Salman admitted his team never fully recovered from their opening 1-0 defeat to Kuwait after slipping out of the Gulf Cup with a 2-0 loss to the UAE on Thursday.
Iraq finished bottom of Group B with just a point from a 1-1 draw with Oman in an unusually poor follow-up to their 2013 campaign where they finished runners-up to champions UAE.
Coach Hakeem Shaker rarely turned up for pre and post-match conferences, fuelling speculation he would be sacked by the Lions of Mesopotamia, while his assistant Salman pinned his side’s early exit on their poor opener.
“The first game had a particularly negative effect on our players,” he said. “The stress affected them, and they couldn’t get out of that situation. If we had won that first game against Kuwait, perhaps things would have been different.”
He added that an injury to talismanic striker Younus Mahmoud and the return of Ali Adnan and Yassir Kaseem to their clubs - due to the closure of the international window - didn’t help matters in their final group game against the UAE.
“We tried to prepare the players, but we didn’t have a full squad and the players we had left have a lack of experience. This caused a shock to our players.
“All these factors led to us conceding two goals against the UAE. We didn’t appear at our best, but we had some attempts and just couldn’t make the most of these opportunities.
“We tried to change things in the second half but the early goal, quickly followed by a second from an individual mistake, increased our dilemma and made it impossible for us to get back in the game.”
