For its second Maurice Revello Tournament in a row, the Saudi football team aims to hold on to its AFC U23 Asian Cup title and, by extension, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
« We deal with all friendly tournaments with clear technical goals, and through them we always draw technical ideas and strategies that we will work on during the official events, and we have also benefited from them in the past period by participating in the friendly by scouting new players, and this is an important point for us in the preparation stages until we reach the best list to represent the national team in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers » said Saad Al-Sehri. The 43-year-old Saudi coach makes it clear: his young Green Falcons won’t come to the South of France just to make up the numbers.
« To find out the mistakes and correct them »
Along with France, Venezuela and Costa Rica, Saudi Arabi acts, however, as underdogs within the Group A. Indeed, for their first appearance in the previous edition, the Saudis finished 12th, which means the last overall ranking: 4 losses out of 4 games. However, Al-Shehri seems to be pleased with such adversity rather than worried « the Maurice Revello Tournament will have a great technical impact due to the strength of competition, and the high levels of the participating national teams, in order to find out the mistakes and correct them, and the clarity of the positive work. »
These decisive games are the upcoming AFC U23 Asian Cup qualifications in Qatar in 2024. As the title holders after beating Uzbekistan in the 2022 final, Saudi Arabia intends to maintain their position « The players feel the importance of preserving the title and reaching the Olympic Games again, and we will work to enhance the positives and correct the mistakes and negatives in order to reach optimal readiness before the Asian battle. » With its mind focused on these two specific goals, no doubt the Saad Al-Shehri’s Green Falcons will serve high-quality football in Aubagne and Mallemort soccer fields.
(Source : saff.com.sa)