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Abu Dhabi: The UAE will face either Japan or Uzbekistan in a friendly match to prepare for their campaign's opener in the final round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup.
The UAE will host North Korea on September 6 at Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium in Group B's first game in the qualifier, while Saudi Arabia will host Iran. They will then host both matches against the Koreans and the Saudis, on September 10.
The national team's head coach, Bruno Metsu, seeks a match against either Japan or Uzbekistan from Group A at the end of August or early September, because their style is similar to that of Korea. The UAE Football Association (UAE FA) has informed both the teams and expects a prompt reply as they will be competing against Gulf teams, Bahrain and Qatar.
Apart from their preparations at home, the UAE will play a match in their training camp in France from August 14-28 and one against Algeria on August 20. They will also play a friendly match against either Qatar or Bahrain to prepare for Saudi Arabia.
Player releases
The UAE FA Technical Committee has requested the team's release from the July training camps so that they can join the national squad training camp in August.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi, the chairman of the UAE FA, said that being ranked among the last four teams does not mean the UAE have lost their opportunity to advance to the World Cup finals.
"The final qualifiers will be tough, but we know that if we want to win a seat in the finals...we have to beat strong competition," he said.
"Reaching the final phase of the qualifiers with the best ten Asian teams is a big honour. I do believe that we have a good chance to win a seat in the finals of the World Cup if we did our best," he added.
"Reaching the final phase of the qualifiers with the best ten Asian teams is a big honour."
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