|
Dubai: The UAE beach football team are making the final touches for the kick off of the Beach Football World Cup Asian Qualifiers which will be organised for the second successive year by Dubai Sports Council at Dubai Jumeirah Park from May 6 to 10.
Six Asian countries are taking part in the qualifiers divided into two groups: Group A comprises Uzbekistan, China and hosts UAE and Group B has Iran, Philippines and Japan.
Defending champions UAE will take on Uzbekistan in their first match in Group A tomorrow night. The opening match will be at 8pm between Japan and Philippines from Group A.
The UAE coach Brazilian Marcelo Mindez will be taking the Uzbekistan match seriously as it will be the bridge through which the UAE will pass to the semifinals.
Also because the Uzbekistan team is unknown to all participants in the qualifiers as they are taking part for the first time in the beach football Asian qualifiers.
The Uzbekistan football team is one of the major powers in Asia and their beach football will not be less in standard than the national team.
Difficult
Mindez is optimistic that the UAE will repeat last year's success when they beat Japan in the final held at the Al Mamzar park in Dubai and qualified for the Beach World Cup finals in November 2007 in Brazil as Asian champions.
"I am optimistic that our team can win the qualifiers and keep the title. The qualifiers this time are more difficult. We have strong teams in our group like China and other teams in Group B which could make things difficult for us in the semifinals," said the UAE coach.
The coach's confidence came from the presence of 11 players from those who represented UAE in the world cup finals last year in Brazil.
"Experience is a main factor in winning tough clashes. Last year we lost in the World Cup finals after performing well; teams like France and Argentina could only beat us with narrow margins.
"This time our technical staff includes a fitness trainer and goalkeeper trainer who will contribute in promoting the players' fitness and the goalkeepers' standard," Mindez said.
The UAE team played four warm-up matches in ten days (from April 18 to 27) during their training camp which began last month in Dubai. They won three matches and lost one in a penalty shoot-out.
UAE defeated Azerbaijan two times 3-2 and 4-3, beat Hungary 6-4 and drew with them in the second match 5-5 and lost on penalties 2-1.
UAE skipper Bakhit Sa'ad proved that he is still in his best form. He scored six goals in the warm-up matches.
The top three teams qualify for the Beach World Cup final in Marseille from July 17 to 27.
|
