Kuwait national football team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kuwait

Nickname

Al Azraq

Association

Kuwait Football Association

Confederation

AFC (Asia)

Head coach

Fawzi Ibrahim

Most caps

Wail Sulaiman Al Habashi (109)

Top scorer

Jassem Al Houwaidi (63)

Home stadium

Kuwait National Stadium

FIFA code

KUW

FIFA ranking

Highest FIFA ranking

24 (December 1998)

Lowest FIFA ranking

100 (July 2006)

Elo ranking

Highest Elo ranking

26 (December 1998)





First kit





Second kit

First international

Kuwait 2 - 2 Libya

(Morocco; September 3, 1961)

Biggest win

Kuwait 20 - 0 Bhutan

(Kuwait City, Kuwait; February 14, 2000)

Biggest defeat

Egypt 8 - 0 Kuwait

(Morocco; September 4, 1961)

Portugal 8 - 0 Kuwait

(Leiria, Portugal; November 19, 2003)

World Cup

Appearances

1 (First in 1982)

Best result

Round 1, 1982

AFC Asian Cup

Appearances

8 (First in 1972)

Best result

Winners, 1980

The Kuwait national football team is the national team of Kuwait and is controlled by the Kuwait Football Association. They made one World Cup Finals appearance, in 1982, managing a draw with Czechoslovakia but losing to England and France. During the match against France, France scored a goal while some of the Kuwaiti players had stopped, having heard a whistle. The goal was initially awarded by the referee, who had not blown, but Kuwait walked off the pitch in protest. They eventually resumed playing only after the intervention of Prince Fahid and the referee's changing his mind to disallow the French goal.

They have better success contending for the Asian Cup, reaching the finals in 1976 and taking home the winner's trophy in 1980.

Kuwait's 20-0 win over Bhutan in 2000 was at the time the biggest ever win in international football. It was surpassed in 2001, when Australia beat Tonga 22-0. Also in 2000, Kuwait took part at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The side are regarded as a rising force in Asian football, having knocked China, traditionally one of the stronger teams, out of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup.

Kuwait has shown great improvement in 2006, first by beating Australia 2-0 on September 6. Kuwait later beat Lithuania 1-0. Kuwait then crushed Taiwan in a 10-0 defeat. However, the successful stint was demolished when Kuwait lost 2-1 to Bahrain on November 16, in an AFC Asian Cup qualifier. The Kuwaiti team was knocked out of the AFC Asian Cup. But in December, the romanian coach Mihai Stoichita got sacked and was replaced with Fawzi Ibrahim with the "Prince of Managers" Saleh Zakaria as assistant.

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1970 - Did not enter
1974 - Did not qualify
1978 - Did not qualify
1982 - Round 1
1986 to 2006 - Did not qualify

[edit] Asian Cup record

1956 to 1968 - Did not enter
1972 - Round 1
1976 - Second place
1980 - Champions
1984 - Third place
1988 - Round 1
1992 - Did not qualify
1996 - Fourth place
2000 - Quarterfinals
2004 - Round 1
2007 - Did not qualify

[edit] Famous players

Jasem Yacob
Fathi Kamel
Abdulaziz Al Anberi
Bader Haji
Abdulah Wabran
Fasil Al Dikel
Bashar Abdallah
Khalid Al Fadhli
Jassem Al Houwaidi
Shebab Kankouni

AFC Asian Cup Winners v • d • e
3 titles : Iran (1968, 1972, 1976) Japan (1992, 2000, 2004) Saudi Arabia (1984, 1988, 1996) 2 titles : Korea Republic (1956, 1960) 1 title : Israel (1964) Kuwait (1980)