Courtesy: Gulf News


Young guns ready to fire at crucial stage

The UAE are nurturing a big dream of qualifying to the World Cup as they prepare to play the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship

by Jai Prasad V. Rai

May 24, 2012

SHARJAH: The UAE futsal team may be just over a year old but they are nurturing a big dream of qualifying to the World Cup as they prepare to play the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship at home from Friday.

"The team is young but they are getting better and better each day. They are hard working boys and anything is possible," said a confident Paulo Eduardo Pinho, coach of UAE.

"It takes time for the boys to understand the tactics of the game. When they started they did not have a clue about the game and today they are in a position to challenge strong teams which shows how they have worked their way to the top."

The UAE are placed in Group A along with Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand. The hosts have to advance to the knock-out stage and win a match there if they have to qualify for the World Cup which will be held in November in Bangkok.

"The team has been getting positive results in the recent matches. The tactics has improved a lot. They also won the friendly matches before the tournament against Tajikistan and Qatar," Tinho added.

Skipper Bader Ibrahim said: "We have not changed any players in the past two months and worked with them. The boys are looking good and confident. We went to Barcelona and then played in Turkey. We had fairly good results but we got to learn a lot from our mistakes."

"We are confident of doing well. We will take it match by match and are hopeful of getting a positive result," added the 28-year-old.

Team manager Faisal Abdullah said: "Since we are the hosts we want to give our country something good, so we are confident of winning and we thank the government for all the support they have provided."




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com