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UAE ready for Chile, Angola friendlies

abu dbahi — Two days after five-time World champions Brazil grace the pitch at the Zayed Sports City, the UAE national team takes on ‘La Roja’ Chile in an international football friendly.

The UAE have arranged two international friendlies — against Chile on Saturday and Angola next Tuesday. The friendlies are part of the team’s preparations for the 20^th Gulf Cup in Yemen and the AFC Asian Cup finals which will be held in Doha, Qatar, in January, 2011.

The UAE defeated Kuwait 3-0 in a friendly in September. That game saw a full-strength squad but coach Srecko Katanec won’t have that luxury this time.

Katanec faces a selection dilemma ahead of the two friendlies as some of his automatic selections won’t be available. He will be without Hamdan Al Kamali, the Al Wahda defender and under-20 captain, as well as Ahmed Khalil. The duo are part of the Olympic team which is preparing for the Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China from November 12 to 27. This, added to the fact that the UAE Football Association has asked Katanec not to pick the Al Wahda players for the Gulf Cup as they are preparing for the FIFA Club World Cup to be held in Abu Dhabi in December, makes it even tougher for Katanec.

“We have a selection problem. We have to leave some of the best players. This is the best I could pick in short notice,” Katanec said about the squad for the friendlies against Chile and Angola.

But Katanec added that the absence of some of the players gives an opportunity for the others. “I don’t think about those who are not available for the senior team. But this provides an opportunity for others to get into the squad. I will try to make some new combinations at the back and some in the middle,” he said.

Katanec has gone ahead and picked four players from Pro-League champions Al Wahda for the two friendlies. But he said he couldn’t find replacements for them at such a short notice. “I have picked the best available team for now. I had no choice in picking a few players from Al Wahda (Ismail Matar, Mohammed Al Shehi, Fahad Masoud, Mahmoud Khamis) because they are important in my team. At a short notice, I couldn’t find any replacements for them. It is not easy to have a line-up in a short time. But, hopefully, I will have more time when we go into the final camp before the Gulf Cup,” Katanec said.

About Chile, Katanec said it was not the same squad which featured in the 2010 World Cup.

“I have seen the Chile squad and it is not the same which played in the World Cup. I really don’t know what team we are going to face on Saturday. But, having said that, whoever is in the Chile national team must be very good,” he said and added: “I’m familiar with the Pedro Morales who has played in Europe. I have seen him play. But I don’t know about the others in the squad.”

Despite being up against a virtually unknown Chile team, Katanec said such games gave him the perfect opportunity to test his team. “I like my team to play against strong opponents to know how good we are. It is not like teams from the same region. On paper, both Chile and Angola are very strong and I would like to test my team against that kind of opponents,” said Katanec.

Marcelo Bielsa, Chile coach, said that despite not bringing the same squad which featured in the World Cup, they were taking the game seriously.

“We are well prepared. We are taking this game seriously. It is normal that we evaluate the players and the team performance after the World Cup. And that’s one of the reasons why we haven’t come with a full squad. But whoever we have selected for this game are good enough to be in the national team,” said Bielsa, who coached the Argentina team from 1998 to 1994 before taking over Chile in 2007.

Bielsa said that Carlos Villanueva, nicknamed ‘La Roja,’ meaning The Red One and who plays for Al Shabab in the UAE, has been called up in the squad. He also added that since Villanueva and Morales were in the squad, there was no place for another midfielder Jorge Valdivia. Valdivia, who played for Al Ain before moving to Brazilian club Palmeiras, was in the Chile squad for the World Cup.

“Carlos Villanueva will be playing. He was already in Dubai and was available for selection and we decided to include him. We have Morales and Villanueva so we didn’t have to bring Valdivia,” he said.

james@khaleejtimes.com