By Rouba Jaafar and Zahi Sahli
LAU Tribune staff
The Lebanese national football team’s surprise 2-1 home victory against South Korea helped lift the country closer to reach the fourth round of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers for the first time in history.
Photo by Rouba Jaafar
Ahead the final round of fixtures in the group, Lebanon sits on top of Group B as joint-leader with Asian heavyweights South Korea ahead of Kuwait – who maintains its slim chances to qualify – while the United Arab Emirates has already crashed out.
In an exclusive interview for the Tribune, president of the Lebanese football federation Hachem Haidar explained how the federation and coaching staff worked on preparing the players psychologically. He suggested that the sudden blooming of national talents was down to motivations presented by the federation.
“First we had to make them challenge themselves. We told them that people lost faith in them and never expected them to win,” Haidar, who has been president of the federation since 2001, said. “We asked them to rise up for themselves. We promised to reward them if they win.”
After Lebanon carved out arguably the highlight of their qualifiers by defeating South Korea –fourth-place finishers at the 2002 World Cup– the government handed each member of the squad a 10 million LBP reward for the team’s fine form.
Al-Ahed defender Abbas Kanaan, however, said that the players were unaware of a financial reward ahead of their game against South Korea. Enthusiasm for the country alone, Kanaan insisted, pushed the players to record the historic win.
“We did not expect financial support before we played. We only played to raise the name of Lebanon,” Kanaan said, insisting that though the fee the players received was a motivating element, it was never their end goal.
After rewarding the members of the national team squad 12 million LBP, the federation now intends to increase the players’ salaries should they clinch qualification from Group B, Haidar said.
“If we beat the United Arab Emirates and we qualify to the next round, we will raise the players’ fixed salaries,” Haidar said. “We will then be in a different stage, a more professional stage.”
The federation has done well to revoke the ban on attendance of football games in the various national divisions ahead of Lebanon’s 2-2 draw with Kuwait on November 11. As a result of a series of clashes among fans in stadiums, the federation had imposed a ban on fan attendance in 2006.
And Haidar believes that the return of fans to the Lebanese stadiums has been instrumental in lifting the Cedars above their mighty opponents.
“The fans form 50 percent of every success. The interest of officials, especially the presence of the president, encouraged the players,” Haidar said.
Nejmeh captain Abbas Atwi, who scored the deciding goal from a penalty kick against South Korea, underlined the importance of the fans’ attendance during the games of the national team.
“The fans played a big role in our win against South Korea as we did not want to disappoint the people watching us,” Lebanon’s number 10 said.
Amid increased criticism over the dire conditions of football stadiums in the country, Haidar explained that the federation is not responsible for the maintenance of pitches.
“Municipalities or the state, depending on who owns the stadiums, are responsible for renovating them,” Haidar said. “We said that we needed better stadiums but we suffer sometimes with some owners while others respond positively.”
Meanwhile Lebanese head coach Theo Bücker identified Lebanon’s new tactical philosophy as a foundational element in the team’s excellent form.
“We play a special concept, we have a kind of a philosophy of how to act and here we underline team work,” Bücker, who also manages current Lebanese League champions Al-Ahed, said when asked about the tactics he has adopted for the Lebanese national team.
“Everybody has to participate in attacking and defending. We are changing the old-fashion tactical ideas by working on all of our players mentally to say ‘I am a football player and I have to do everything to the best of my ability’,” Bücker added.
Haidar said that the federation spent heavily within their slender means to ensure quality preparation for the national team – which included a training camp in Qatar – ahead of their 1-0 away wins against Kuwait.
The key element, which would boost the standard of the game, is the improvement of the Lebanese Premier League’s competitiveness, Haidar explained.
“What must now be done is to improve the image of the league. The level of the clubs, the league and the national team are linked to one another,” Haidar said. “And when we have a higher level of football, we can get sponsors to invest in Lebanese football.”
The national team relies on players like team captain and Chinese club Shandong Luneng star Roda Antar and Emirate’s Al-Ahli and former Koln F.C. captain Youssef Mohamad two players who have been plying their trade in foreign leagues for years.
“Now that people realize the potential of Lebanese football, foreign clubs are scouting Lebanese players and more Lebanese talents are playing abroad,” Haidar said, adding that he expects more Lebanese players to sign contracts with foreign clubs in the future.
Lebanese forwards Mohammad Ghaddar and Hassan Ma’atouk and defender Ramez Dayoub have been playing at Malaysian side Kelantan FA, Emirates club Ajman and Malaysian club Selangor FA.
Although Lebanon is just a small step away from clinching an unprecedented qualification to the fourth round of the World Cup qualifiers, Bücker is keen that his players guard against complacency in their final match against the Emirates to secure qualification.
“If we lose against the Emirates and Kuwait beat South Korea, we are out. Then everybody would be even more disappointed than before. We need to keep both legs on the ground and really concentrate on the last step,” Bücker said.
The German coach, who managed the likes of Egyptian giants Zamalek and Ismaily, believes that the team must still improve its performances if the country wants to achieve superior feats.
“We need to conserve the level of our performances and from there, go forward because there is room for improvement.”
The only competitive tournament in which the Lebanese national team has taken part in is Asian Cup in 2000. Lebanon hosted the tournament and the national team hence featured as automatic entree. Lebanon was unable to go beyond the group stage though.
Positioned at 146th in the FIFA World Rankings before the qualifying campaign, Lebanon’s efforts have been rewarded as they moved up 35 positions.
The Lebanese national team plays its final qualifier against the United Arab Emirates away on February 29, 2012.
LAU Tribune 
Discussion
No comments yet.