Yemen hires Vietnamese match analyst

Reply sheetAl-Mashhad, Yemen team leader Mohammed al-Khamisi said: "Coach Jan Kocian asked us to hire a football analyst and statistician to closely follow the performances of Iran, Iraq and Vietnam. The Yemen Football Federation has discussed with Kocian and agreed to hire the Polish expert. He will start working with Yemen from January 4".

Yemen (red shirt) quietly prepares for Asian Cup 2019. Photo:AFC.

Yemen is currently ranked 135th in FIFA, 35 places below Vietnam. However, coach Kocian's team only lost by a minimal margin in friendly matches against strong opponents like Saudi Arabia and Syria. In addition, they lost 0-2 to UAE in November 2018.

Yemen was one of the quietest teams in the run-up to the 2019 Asian Cup. They trained in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. The unstable civil war situation in their homeland did not allow Yemen to return to play. But according to coach Kocian, they always received support from Yemeni fans abroad during their training matches.

For the first time participating in the Asian Cup, Yemen has called up many players currently playing in Qatar. Recently, the Qatar National Championship decided not to consider Yemeni players as foreign players. This will help Yemeni players gain experience and improve their skills for the Asian Cup.

Yemen will play Iran at 11pm on January 7 (Hanoi time). They will face Iran at 8:30pm on January 12, and then four days later they will play Vietnam at 11pm.