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Dubai: The UAE national football team left for Muscat to play a warm- up match against Oman tomorrow in preparation for the World Cup qualifiers.
UAE meet Syria in their second match after topping Group B, beating Kuwait 2-0 in the first match held in Abu Dhabi last month.
The UAE coach Bruno Metsu selected Yousuf Jabir of Al Ahli to join the team instead of Salih Obaid of Al Jazira who is injured.
"The Oman match is a warm-up and we will not field some of our key players. It's different than the match against Syria in the World Cup qualifiers." said Metsu.
"The result of the Oman match is not important. I will be focusing on the performance of the team and the quality of the new players like Mohammad Ebrahim, Ahmad Khalil, Esmail Hammady, Obaid Taweela and Esmail Hammady."
Metsu said that the match against Syria in Damascus will not be easy.
"I hope our team will be in a fine form to achieve good result against Syria. I think even a point against them will be a good result. I saw Syria in action against Iran when they snatched a draw in Tehran - they rely on stamina, fitness and speed. The Syrians were actually close to winning the match," the UAE coach observed.
Metsu claimed that a draw in Syria will put the UAE on top of the group before meeting Iran in June.
The UAE delegation to Muscat will be headed by Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi, the FA board chairman, with technical staff led by Metsu, his assistants, administrative and medical staff along with 18 players.
The Al Wahda (four players) and Al Wasl (two) players couldn't make the trip due to their club commitments in the Asian champions league.
The UAE team held a training session in Muscat yesterday and will have their final training session today at Bosher stadium. The match will be played from 7 pm tomorrow.
The UAE squad will train in two sessions in Dubai on March 22-23, before leaving the next day for Damascus to meet Syria on March 26.
UAE squad: Esmail Rabea, Obaid Taweela, Rashid Abdul Rahman, Majid Naser, Mohammad Qasim, Bashir Saeed, Tariq Hasan, Obaid Khalifa, Yousuf Jaber, Haydar Allo Ali, Faiz Juma, Faris Juma, Abdullah Mal Allah, Hilal Saeed, Darwish Ahmad, Sibait Kahter, Mohammad Ebrahim, Saif Mohammad, Ahmad Dada, Esmail Mattar, Faisal Khalil, Mohammad Sheh'hi, Ahmad Khalil, Esmail Hammady.
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