WAFF u-23 2024

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I am watching the Olyroos playing Egypt in the West Asian Football Federation U-23 Semi-Finals (just gone to extra-time).

It struck me that the tournament consists of Saudi, Jordan, UAE & Iraq from WAFF, and Thailand, South Korea, Australia & Egypt from elsewhere.

Why were Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine not playing? At least Iraq sent their u19s instead of their u23s (as so many of the u23s are in the senior team).

I would have thought this tournament would have provided a good run-in for the AFC u23 Asian Cup in Qatar next month (Qatar and Kuwait are both in the finals but not at the WAFF U23).

Ah, straight to penalties and Egypt save the first....................

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And we are through with good work from Hall and some poor penalties from Saudi.

Looks like the WAFF final will be a battle of the traditional West Asian rivals, a rivalry born in the dunes of the Arabian Peninsular. Grab your camel and strap your musket to your back as Australia take on South Korea in the final.

[otto62]

I think the idea was to give the (important? special? preferred?) WAFF teams exposure to a broader range of (different? better?) opponents to help them pick up their game.