Football: Aguirre rues errors, ref's rulings; Cate lauds Jazira

Al Wahda erred and Al Jazira made them pay during the Arabian Gulf Cup match at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday night. The 'Clarets' had a two-goal cushion going into the half time but 13 minutes after break it was 2-all.
Al Wahda coach Javier Aguirre accepted that 'some mistakes' did cost the reigning Cup champions the game. "We gifted a corner and a goal too," he said referring to Al Jazira's hurriedly taken corner in the 58th minute, which caught Al Wahda defence napping and saw Fares Juma popping in the header.
The coach said that they were undone by refereeing decisions. In the ninth minute, Clarets' striker Jorge Valdivia was brought down in the penalty area by Sultan Al Shamsi. Worse, the Chilean was slapped with a yellow card for diving. "It was a clear penalty. Things would have been different had we scored then."
"Even Valdivia's second yellow from Salim Rashid tackle was a 50-50 case. Both were going for the ball and one got penalised," Aguirre said.
The Mexican was dejected and blasted the red card. "To play with 10 men was a big disadvantage," he said.
"Overall, we played good game and created lots of chances," the Mexican added.
Meanwhile, Henk ten Cate hailed his team's fighting spirit.
"We started very bad and gave away two easy goals. That was not Al Jazira in the first half. We gave away Eid presents. But we made two substitutions (Sultan Barghash, Abdulla Mousa) and it helped us to control the game better. We did a good job to bounce back from being two goals down."
He said the game was a good test for Al Jazira.
"We have to learn from this. The competition is not going to be easy. Other teams are not going to give away presents. We have to act on our own and also stop giving away presents."
The Dutchman said that there are still many players who are carrying injuries and few others are away on national duty. "Considering all this, I am happy with the performance."
With Mbark Boussoufa joining the squad, there are five foreign players in the team. Asked which foreign player is on his way out, he said: "Its club's call. I can't say anything more."
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com