Casas: Happy for the happiness of the fans

After the Iraq-Yemen match in the third and final round of the first group, which ended with Iraq’s victory of 5/0, at the Basra International Stadium, a press conference was held for Casas, the coach of the Iraqi national team, who said: “We are very happy with the result and happy because of the happiness that we gave to the Iraqi people, despite the fact that the match ended with five goals, but they were not easy, we suffered from possession of the ball, the two canceled goals were fair, and I have to watch the match again to identify the mistakes.”

He added: Of course, any of the teams will be strong and deserve to qualify, and in any case, the next match will be difficult. I was afraid of players who played consecutive matches and some players who got yellow cards, so I tried to keep the players.

He explained: “Of course, as I mentioned before, he is happy and accepting of the players’ performance.” In the first half, we suffered more and the team had some nervousness, but after Amir entered the midfield, we became more stable as a group inside the stadium. We are happy with Iraq’s performance. We needed these changes. When we put stability in the middle of the field, we performed better.

With regard to stability in the squad, Casas said: “For me, it is very difficult to settle on certain players.” I like to put the players on standby at any moment, and the players participating in the match cannot relax because others are present. The players are the same everywhere, and we must look for talents; they are present in Iraq just as they are in Spain; only we are trying; our style of play is similar to Spain, and I think some players have the potential to play in Spain.

He concluded: “I do not wish to be dismissed from the team; I am still new and I hope to be present for a long time; the team we have is an integrated team and plays in multiple ways.”