The Gulf Cup of Nations.

Yemen will be kicking-off the 20th Edition of the Gulf Cup of Nations, a prestigious event in itself, as well as offering the participating teams a chance at pulling everything together before the AFC Asian Cup in 2011. The holders Oman will certainly hope to retain the title while hosts Yemen would like to win the title on home soil. Having won the title at home the last time the Gulf Cup came around, Oman will hope to continue their good recent record in the tournament, having been runners-up in 2004 and 2007, losing to Qatar and the UAE respectively. Led by Claude Le Roy of France, the Omanis will only have the Gulf Cup to look forward to as they were not successful in qualifying for the Asian Cup. Despite having to face sides such as Iraq, the UAE, and Bahrain in their group, Le Roy seems confident his side will at least make it to the semi-finals. Yemen meanwhile will hope that this year proves more successful than previous years as they have been eliminated the past 5 times in the group stages. Led by Croatian Srecko Juricic, a former coach of the UAE and Bahrain, Yemen were looking good in the build-up to the tournament having beaten Liberia 2-0 and Senegal 4-1. Saudi Arabia are favorites on the other hand even though Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro dropped 11 members of his squad for vague reasons. Nonetheless, the Saudi team still has prolific midfielder Mohammed Al Shalhoub for inspiration in the search for another title. Al Shalhoub definitely has the Gulf Cup on his mind, having said: “The Gulf Cup is the region’s favourite tournament... the Gulf people view the games as being just as important as any international matches. Winning the trophy is the aspiration of everyone playing in it.” Having won the Cup 3 other times, the Saudis look quite fierce, having beaten both Uzbekistan and Gabon and drawing with African giants Ghana in the build-up to the finals. The UAE will also be looking forward to this installment, hoping for a possible 2 titles in three years after success in 2007. Slovenian Srecko Katanec coaches the team and can call up quite a few veterans from that victorious side, including outstanding striker Ismail Matar. They destroyed India 5-0 in the build-up to this year's final and will hope for anything better than last time's 1st round exit. Another good team, Iraq will seek a 4th Gulf Cup title since the ten year period under legendary coach Emmanuel Baba in which they won 3. German Wolfgang Sidka may be just the man to restore the team's winning ways following 2-1 and 2-0 victories over Qatar and India respectively. Kuwait also has cause to be positive, despite the tough group they are in, as they won last month's West Asain Championship. The small Gulf nation will hope for inspiration from the previous 9 Gulf titles they have lifted as well as their 9-1 hammering of India. Qatar would obviously like to extend their trophy count to a third of Kuwait's amount this year, potentially adding a third to their 1992 and 2004 titles. However Qatar's friendlies leading up to the Yemen hosted Gulf Cup haven't been too bright and the side will hope to increase performance before their turn as host, of the Asian Cup in January, comes. Winning in Yemen would certainly be a step in the right direction. Finally, Bahrain will remain somewhat hopeful that this could be their break-out year in the Gulf Cup following 4 times of losing to various opponents in the final games they have been to. The Groups of the Gulf Cup are as follows: Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in Group A while Group B consists of Oman, Iraq, the UAE, and Bahrain.