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Gulf NewsUAE Futsal coach wants strong start to AFC competitionHosts begin tournament with match against Kyrgyzstan on Fridayby
Alaric GomesMay 22, 2012Dubai: The UAE's national Futsal team coach need to make a positive start if they are to have any chance of advancing to the knockout stages of the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship that kicks off here on Friday.
"The first match [against Turkmenistan] will be the most important one for the UAE. We will have to go all out for a win and anything short of a win will make our work harder," coach Paulo Eduardo De Jesus Pinho [Padu] told Gulf News.
The UAE squad has been in training at the Sharjah Youth Centre since their return from a training camp in Istanbul, Turkey. They also played a pair of friendly matches, beating Qatar 5-3 and Tajikistan 4-0.
But Padu does not see too much benefit in these triumphs, unless his players learning from their mistakes. "We had some issues in these matches and we need to resolve and fix these aspects of our game. The players are aware that they should not be looking too much into these friendly wins, as friendly matches are played so that the team can get better," Padu said.
After opening their campaign in Group A against Turkmenistan on Friday, the UAE will play Kyrgyzstan and Thailand on the next two days, with only the top two from each group advancing to the quarter-finals.
"We deliberately chose Qatar and Tajikistan for our friendly matches as we wanted to play against teams with similar styles," Padu said.
"We are expecting a strong and tough competition over the next few days, but I am confident that our players have gained enough experience to take on the best in this championship. Ours is a strong group and our goal will be to start off with a win so that we do not put ourselves under pressure in our final match against Thailand."
The 16-team competition gets underway with the opening ceremony at 5pm on Friday at Al Wasl Club's indoor hall. The best four teams will automatically qualify for the 2012 Fifa Futsal World Cup to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in November.
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