a player and of Red Star Belgrade fame. Unfortunately, due to his contract extending for just a year, Vladmir Petrović quit as Yemen's manager in May 2014. Because of this, Yemen dropped to their lowest and worst in Yemen's football: 186th. In preparation for the 22nd Arabian Gulf Cup, they hired Czech youth teams' manager Miroslav Soukup to attempt to revive the national team. Once again, Yemen was eliminated without winning a match, but for the first time in their Gulf Cup history, they didn't finish last. The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification happened with the outbreak of the civil war, leaving majority of the national team's players and staff to escape to Djibouti by boat, which made headline by the media. Yemen only managed to defeat two opponents, Pakistan and the Philippines, while they lost to other opponents, thus Yemen ended their qualification with bottom record. However, since the failure, Yemen has begun their resurgence. During the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification, which was the first attempt of Yemen to qualify to the tournament as an unified nation, Yemen has defeated Tajikistan, while maintaining other draws. Yemen had a big chance to qualify to its first international tournament in its history as a unified country. Finally, with the help from the Philippines when the Azkals defeated Tajikistan 2–1 in Manila, Yemen had finally qualified to the Asian Cup for the first time in its history. In the team's maiden AFC Asian Cup, Yemen was grouped with Iraq, Iran and Vietnam. Their opening campaign was against Iran, which participated in the previous 2018 World Cup and had almost eliminated Spain in progress. Yemen played well in the first ten minutes and almost scored a goal, but aftermath saw Iran completely dominated Yemen and the Yemenis lost 0–5 to Iran. Yemen later fell to Iraq 0–3 after being unable to repel Iraqi pressure, and later lost to Southeast Asian opponent Vietnam 0–2 and finished last with no goal and no point. Both three opponents of Yemen would soon progress from the group stage. Yemen later participated in the 2019 WAFF Championship where they were grouped with host Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. The Yemeni side was eliminated from the group stage this time, but they managed to finish in third place, even above Lebanon and Syria, thanked for a 2–1 over the former and a 1–1 draw to the latter. Despite