Oman 2017 Home U23 matchworn?
Here is a slightly battle damaged design. Traditional red and white colouring with an interesting take on traditional stripes. However, the stripes stop in the middle and overall quality is poor (otherwise known as “Jako”). The badge has also massively spilt into the shirt itself, though the having numbers helps and the typeface is quite nice, though just the country name is an unimaginative thing to put on the back.
Looks to have been used solely by the U23 side, mainly in the 2018 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, where they came back from a goal down to thrash Kyrgyzstan 5-1 with 4 goals from the 80th minute! They also beat Iran 2-0 to qualify (as Sri Lanka withdrew) for the final tournament. It may have also been used across U23 friendlies in the period which were generally successful, with draws against Algeria and Cameroon and victories against Jordan and Turkey.
Typically unspectacular but regularly competing sums up the Omani national side. That and regularly changing shirts, something they should perhaps calm down a bit on. They’ve never been to a World Cup, tend to be involved in low scoring games and regularly win around half their matches. Despite some better performances for tournaments like the Asian Cup and various Arab nations cups, Oman remain frustrated. 4 Asian Cup appearances has led to only 1 knockout round appearance (in 2019) and they’ve never qualified out of their group at the Pan Arab Games, the Arab Nations Cup or the Asian Games.
No women’s side has ever played a full international, like many of their neighbours, though they have had some 5 and 7-a-side appearances which went poorly. The U23s and U20s follow a similar pattern to the senior team, with fewer tournament appearances and a similar lack of success, though the U23 Asian Games has provided a quarter-finals appearance. In contrast, the U17 team has 2 AFC U16 titles and a 3rd place to their name (from 1994 to 2000) and even came 4th in the 1995 U17 World Cup!
The Omani national futsal team doesn’t play regularly and hasn’t entered AFC competition since 1992 where they failed to qualify. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they’re much better at Beach Soccer! Once champions and twice runners-up at the Asian Beach games, they also have four top 3 finishes at the AFC Beach Soccer Championship, qualifying for every tournament since 2009. They went to the 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cups but only have a win against Costa Rica and one against Nigeria to show for it.
Aside from a loss away in Qatar, Oman’s qualifying for 2022 is well underway. They’re expected to qualify for the third round but, as ever, the top teams will likely prove to be too much for them.
Adam's National Shirt Collection 