April 28th, 2024: This Week in Palestinian Football
Palestino carries the flag in South America, Oday Dabbagh returns to form, and Wessam Abou Ali send Al-Ahly to the Champions League Final
Every couple of years, Palestino- the modest but historic club from Bario Patronato in the Recoleta district of Santiago- makes headlines.
A third Copa Libertadores Group Stage participation in nine years and a Copa de Chile triumph in 2018 is something a second golden age for the club. Palestino does not have the resources of Colo-Colo, Universidad Catolica, and Universidad de Chile. Instead of splashy signigns, Palestino’s success has followed a formula of relying on talent from their academy and picking up veterans on free transfers.
The formula is on full display this season as Palestino’s best players have been 37 year old goalkeeper Cesar Rigamonti and 17-year old defender Iván Román.
On Thursday night, a brace from home-grown midfielder Felipe Chamorro gave Palestino their first three points of their Copa Libertadores campaign. The 3-1 win over Millonarios has resuscitated their hopes of advancing to the knockout stage of the competition for the first time since the club’s heydays in the 1970s.
More than their acts on the pitch, Palestino has vocal in their advocacy for Gaza over the past seven months. The club made headlines in 2014 for replacing the number one on their jerseys with the historic map of Palestine.
The team went out onto the pitch last week in a top of the table clash against Universidad de Chile with a banner demanding a stop to the genocide of Gaza.
Perhaps the most emblematic gesture was Felipe Chamorro’s celebration. The midfielder, like the rest of the senior team, has no ties to the land of Palestine yet he decided to spontaneously celebrate his first goal against Millonarios with a Handala pose.
Mohammed Saleh signs for Muaither, gets relegated
A short term deal means Mohammed Saleh has finally found a club after falling out with Al-Ittihad Alexandria’s ownership in 2023. The circumstances are less than ideal and the results on the penultimate match day means that Muaither will need to play a relegation playoff in order to ensure survival.
Muaither announced that the signing had been concluded because Jordanian defender Yazan Al-Arab had suffered an injury. The club was in such a crisis Mohammed Saleh actually played- as a substitute- only hours after signing for the club.
Saleh started today’s match against Al-Arabi. It started well enough with the team jumping out to a 2-1 lead and recapturing the lead in the second half before succumbing to a 4-3 loss. The result would prove to be irrelevant with relegation rivals Al-Markhiya securing a point in their game against Um Salal.
It remains to be seen if this tryout will convince the club to sign Saleh to a longterm deal ahead of their return to the Qatari second tier.
Dabbagh delivers safety to Charleroi
This week began with worries over Oday Dabbagh’s form after an outing that saw him miss four big chances as well as have a goal ruled out in a narrow 1-0 win over Eupen.
The goal that was taken off Dabbagh was the result of a highly controversial VAR decision- a fact that seemed to be left out in the hysteria that followed afterwawrds.
It was not a good performance by Dabbagh’s lofty standards and scoring zero goals when xG stands at 1.5 is not something an elite striker should make a habit of.
This past weekend, Dabbagh made things right by scoring the winner in a 2-1 win over Eupen when his xG stood stood at just 0.5.
For all the panic, Dabbagh remains the team’s top scorer and one of the few bright spots alongside the other established internationals in the team- Adem Zorgane and Herve Koffi.
Abou Ali advances Al-Ahly to Fifth straight Champions League Final
Wessam Abou Ali waited for the right moment to bag his first ever goal in the African Champions League. The Danish born striker has already scored three times for Al-Ahly in the Egyptian Premier League but none of the three will be as special as the clinching goal against TP Mazembe.
If their were any doubts as to Abou Ali’s ability to adapt to African football those have now been put to bed. The newly minted Palestine international will be the main striker of the Club of the Century next season with Anthony Modeste slated to leave.
Moustafa Zeidan speaks on his decision to join Palestine’s National Team
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