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The Kuwait national under-23 football team is the youth association football team representing Kuwait in youth competitions and it is controlled by Kuwait Football Association. Kuwait under 23 Could also be called as Kuwait Olympic Team. Kuwait under 23 also represents its country in the Olympic Games. From 1900 to 1976 Kuwait did not qualify for the Olympic Games but in 1980 Kuwait qualified for the Olympic Games in China and had the best record of their country finishing in the quarter-finals of that Olympic games. Kuwait missed the 1984 and 1988 Olympic games. But in 1992 Kuwait finally qualified for the 1992 Olympic Games in Spain, however with their poor performance, Kuwait was eliminated in the first round of that tournament. After that Kuwait had missed the 1996 Olympic Games that was hosted by the United States, Kuwait then qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia and that was the last time Kuwait qualified for the Olympic Games. Kuwait has never won the GCC U-23 Championship but their best finish at that Competition was as a runner up in 2010. In the 2022 Asian U-23 qualification Cup Group D, Kuwait managed to defeat Bangladesh by 1-0[1] and Saudi Arabia by 2-1,[2] this resulted in Kuwait to qualify for the 2022 U-23 Asian Cup.
 | |||
| Nickname(s) | Al-Azraq (The Blue) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Kuwait Football Association | ||
| Confederation | AFC (Asia) | ||
| Sub-confederation | WAFF (West Asia) | ||
| Head coach | Emílio Peixe | ||
| Captain | Abdulaziz Naji | ||
| FIFA code | KUW | ||
| |||
| Summer Olympics | |||
| Appearances | 3 (first in 1980) | ||
| Best result | Quarter-finals (1980) | ||
| AFC U-23 Asian Cup | |||
| Appearances | 3 (first in 2013) | ||
| Best result | Group stage (2013, 2022, 2024) | ||
Honours
editRegional honours
editMinor
edit- 2018 Olympic Return Cup
History
editKuwait’s first-ever qualification to the Olympic games was in the 1980 Olympic Games which Kuwait were eliminated in the quarter-finals of that Olympic games. Kuwait missed the 1984 Olympic Games and the 1988 Olympic Games. Kuwait came back to the Olympic Games in 1992 after missing two events being eliminated in the quarter-final of that event. Kuwait did not qualify until the 2000 Olympic Games and that was the last time Kuwait qualified for the Olympic games. Kuwait did not qualify to the Olympic Games in 2004 after being eliminated in the qualifying Preliminary round 3 of the Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Qualifiers at the third position of the 3rd group. Kuwait was unqualified from Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Qualifier, with 2 being 4 goals less than Qatar due to that, Kuwait missed the 2008 Olympic Games. Kuwait also failed to participate in the 2012 Olympic Games after losing Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Qualifiers, within losing the first leg to Japan 3-1 but then Kuwait defeated Japan 2-1, Japan won on the aggregate. Kuwait does not have a good record at GCC U-23 Championship after finishing 5th in the final group of the 2008 GCC U-23 Championship. Kuwait was at the bottom of the table at that time. In 2010 Kuwait was the runner-up of their group. Kuwait was qualified for the semi-finals, Kuwait defeated Oman 5-4 on penalties. But lost to UAE. In the 2011 and 2012 GCC U-23 Championship, Kuwait was unfortunately eliminated in the first round with 0 points losing all three games.
Participation in Tournaments
editSummer Olympics
edit| Summer Olympics record | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Result | Position | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Squad | ||||||||||
| 1900–1988 | See Kuwait national football team | ||||||||||||||||||
 1992 |
Group stage | 16th | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 | Squad | ||||||||||
 1996 |
did not qualify | ||||||||||||||||||
 2000 |
Group stage | 12th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | Squad | ||||||||||
 2004 |
did not qualify | ||||||||||||||||||
 2008
| |||||||||||||||||||
 2012
| |||||||||||||||||||
 2016
| |||||||||||||||||||
 2020
| |||||||||||||||||||
 2024
| |||||||||||||||||||
| 2028 |
to be determined | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2032
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Total | Group stage | 2/11 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 14 | — | ||||||||||
Asian Games
edit- From 2002 Asian Games, at the first tournament to be played in an under-23 format.
| Year | Round | GP | W | D* | L | GS | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 2002 |
- | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 1 |
 2006 |
- | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| 2010 |
- | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 2014 |
- | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
| Total | 4/4 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 19 | 13 |
AFC U-23 Asian Cup
edit| Year | Round | GP | W | D* | L | GS | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 2013 |
Group stage | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 2016 |
Did not qualify | ||||||
| 2018
| |||||||
 2020
| |||||||
 2022 |
Group stage | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| 2024 |
Group stage | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
 2026 |
To be determined | ||||||
| Total | 3/7 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 19 |
Kuwait's fixtures and results
edit2024
edit| 17 April 2024 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup | Vietnam  | 3–1 |  Kuwait | Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah |
| 18:30 |
|
Report | Referee: Abdulla Al-Marri (Qatar) |
| 20 April 2024 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup | Kuwait | 0–5 | Uzbekistan | Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah |
| 18:30 | Report | Referee: Hanna Hattab (Syria) |
| 23 April 2024 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup | Kuwait | 2–1 |  Malaysia | Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah |
| 18:30 | Referee: Alex King (Australia) |
Players
editCurrent squad
edit- The following 25 players were called up for the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup.[3]
Coaching staff
edit| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Head coach |  Emílio Peixe
|
| Assistant coach | Francisco Gouvela Paulo Vieira Vasco Pereira Ahmad Ghobash Marzoug Al-Khelaifi
|
| Goalkeeper coach | Tiago Manta
|
| Fitness coach | Jose Vasconcelos
|
| Physiotherapist | Ricardo Couto
|
| Team Doctor | Joao Pedro Pinho
|
| Technical director | Diogo Rebelo
|
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Bangladesh U23 vs. Kuwait U23 - 27 October 2021 - Soccerway". int.soccerway.com. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
- ^ "Kuwait U23 vs Saudi Arabia U23 free livescore and video stream(2021/10/30) - AiScore Football LiveScore". m.aiscore.com. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
- ^ "قائمة لاعبي منتخبنا الوطني الأولمبي لنهائيات كأس آسيا تحت 23 في قطر" [List of players of our Olympic national team for the AFC U-23 Cup finals in Qatar]. Twitter (in Arabic). Kuwait Football Association. 4 April 2024.