(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) UAE football coach urges fans not to compare current team with silver medalists from 2010 Games.Coach Ali Ebrahim reckons that the boys are ready for the Asian Games challenge. — Supplied photo
Dubai — The UAE football coach for the Asian Games Ali Ebrahim has urged fans not to compare the current squad with the silver medalists from the Guangzhou Games in 2010.
With barely 48 hours to go before the UAE team start their campaign in Incheon South Korea against India the UAE Asian Games team coach reckons that the boys were ready to fulfill heavy expectations on them to improve on the silver medal won last time.
“I don’t deny that the great achievement of the UAE team (silver medal in Guangzhou) inspired this team to top the group in preliminary round” Ali pointed out.
“But the comparison between the two Mahdi Ali’s team and my team could be a little bit unfair and somewhat embarrassing” the UAE Olympic Team coach reckons.
The Mahdi Ali-trained boys had finished runners-up to Japan in Guangzhou after a heartbreaking 0-1 narrow defeat in the final four years ago although they were fancied to win.
“Then” Ali believes “the players were well prepared after returning from the 2009 Fifa U-20 World Cup in Egypt where they had finished fifth.”
He pointed out that the 2010 team also won the AFC U-19 Cup in Dammam Saudi Arabia in 2008 and before that they had won the GCC U-17 Cup. “That team had blended well after playing together for almost four years before the 2010 Asian Games” he said. “In our case we are preparing the current squad for the upcoming commitments including the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in March 2015. This is the vision of the National Teams’ Committee at the UAE Football Association. We are looking forward to gain more experience during the Asian Games. Our start was in Oman during the AFC U-22 Cup finals early this year.
“The current squad is a blend of U-23 and U-21. We have our targets clear in front of us and that’s to prepare for the 2016 Summer Games qualifiers” he concluded.
Meanwhile the expectations among pundits as well as fans in the UAE this time around are so high that nothing short of gold medal at the Incheon Games would satisfy them. The lady luck too seems to have smiled on Ali when the UAE team was drawn in three-team Group-G along with weaker India and not-so-fancied Jordan.
“I think there’s not much concern at this stage. Everything is going well and the buildup for the championship is almost completed” he said in statement issued on Saturday.
“The players have a strong desire to excel and are following the directives and instructions of the technical staff. They are committed to achieve a higher position at this Asian Games” he reiterated.
Ali paid tributed to the coaches of the football clubs in the UAE. “We depend on the clubs to hone their skills before they come to the different level of national teams” he said and hoped that the Olympic team players would be given a chance to play alongside the senior teammates at their respective clubs. “These young boys are the future of the UAE football and deserve every opportunity to play at a high level and gain experience.”
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