Al-Amidi: “Our journey to the Asian Cup and the World Cup begins in Beirut.”

About two weeks ago, the Iraqi Basketball Federation contracted Serbian coach Milan Nesic, assisted by national coach Aqeel Najm, to oversee the new journey of the Iraqi national team, which is preparing to participate in the Asian qualifiers for the Asian and World Cups. The first window brings together the "Lions of Mesopotamia" in Group D, along with the national teams of Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and Jordan. Nesic, who is also the coach of the Iraqi team Zakho, began his work quickly, summoning 19 players to participate in the national team's initial training sessions before selecting the final roster for the qualifiers. The roster will face a real test in the Beirut Cup, which will be held from February 17 to 20. The tournament is supervised by the Lebanese Basketball Federation and organized by Global Active Sports. This is just three days before the team's first official match against Saudi Arabia in Baghdad. Nesic chose his initial squad from: Ali Mu'ayyad Ismail, Hassan Ali Abdullah, Mohammed Salah Mahdi, and Hussein Hadi Talib from Al-Shorta Club, Karrar Jassim Hamza, Abbas Hadi Abdul Razzaq, Ali Hatem Hamid, and Mohammed Faleh Mahdi from Al-Naft Club, Diyar Ahmed Abdul-Ilah (Al-Karkh), Ali Abdullah Ahmed (Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi), Nours Dharar Dhafer, Abdullah Haidar Abbas, and Abdullah Majeed Abdullah (Dijlah University), Mohammed Abdul Khaliq Abdul Qader, Ihab Hassan Obaidi, and Fareed Raadi (Al-Difaa Al-Jawiya), Mohammed Mohsen Ismail, and Murad Ali Murad (Zakho), in addition to the naturalized Demario Mayfield (32 years old), who has been playing for Iraq since 2017. Nesic subjected the players to several training sessions in Baghdad, before joining a training camp in Dohuk, which ended on Thursday, according to what was confirmed by the head of the Iraqi Basketball Federation, Hussein Al-Amidi, who expressed his happiness at participating in the Beirut Cup, which "provided our national team with three matches, while "Had it not been for this participation, we would have intended to play one friendly match against the Bahraini national team in preparation for the first Asian window. Now we have three matches ahead of us, during which the technical staff can better prepare." The head of the Iraqi Federation thanked the Lebanese Basketball Federation and the organizing company, noting that the Iraqi national team's preparations are proceeding according to plan. However, he wished some of the national team players hadn't been busy with the two matches of the Wasl Championship: "The national team includes four players from the Police team, which will play a match in Beirut against the Sports Club, and four players from the Oil team, which will play against Iran's Gorgan. This affects the national team in terms of the timing of this tournament, whose matches should have been after the first window. In any case, the Police players will join the national team from Beirut, which arrives on the 16th of this month." Al-Ameedi continued: “We will play two strong matches in Beirut against the Lebanese and Kuwaiti national teams, as the best preparation for the Iraqi national team, which will face the strong Saudi national team in the “first window”. The Beirut Cup will be an opportunity for us to get to know the Palestinian national team more, and of course our first goal is to qualify for the Asian Cup, where the opportunity is great with the qualification of the best four third-place teams in the groups. Our biggest goal is to be among the best eight Asian teams to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in our history, and the beginning of this journey will be in Beirut.”