UAE football squad to travel to Austria today

Dubai - They will be preparing for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers as well as the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers

The UAE football team took their first steps towards 2022 World Cup qualifiers as well as the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers by assembling on Friday night.
The new coach Dutchman Bert van Marwijk, who replaced Italian Alberto Zaccheroni this March, had named a 27-man squad in May for a training camp in Salzburg, Austria.
The squad will undergo medical tests on Saturday morning before flying off to Munich, Germany. After touching down in Munich, the squad will travel by bus to Salzburg.
They will hold daily training at their base until the 22nd of this month. The squad will then return to Dubai on the same day.
The squad is shorn off Al Wahda players as the club will be busy contesting the AFC Champions League Round of 16 fixtures against Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr on August 5 and 12.
Van Marwijk has included gifted playmaker Omar Abdulrahman, who had been on the sidelines since last October following a crucial ligament injury, which required surgery.
The squad sees the inclusion of shot stopper Adel Al Hosani, who won the Golden Glove Award at the season-ending Arabian Gulf League awards.
Al Jazira's Khalfan Mubarak, who was named the Best Emirati Player, has also been included.
The UAE, who are among the 34 teams to have received a bye into the second round of the Asia Zone World Cup qualification, will begin their campaign on September 5 with their second match following five days later. The draw for the second round will be made on July 17 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The second round of qualifiers also serves as the second round of qualification for the AFC Asian Cup to be held in China in 2023. The qualifiers run until June 9, 2020.
The UAE had lost in the semifinal in the AFC Asian Cup held on home soil, earlier this year.
Following the camp in July, the squad will reconvene again from August 24 to September 10 ahead of the two qualifiers.
SQUAD:
Ali Khaseif, Ali Mabkhout, Salem Rashed, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Zayed Al Ameri, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Ahmed Khalil, Walid Abbas, Majed Hassan, Ismail Al Hammadi (Shabab Al Ahli), Adel Al Hosani, Ali Hassan Saleh, Majed Suroor (Sharjah), Khalid Essa, Ahmed Barman, Ryan Yaslam, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmin (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharrami, Fahad Al Dhahani (Bani Yas), Mohammed Al Shaker (Ajman), Omar Abdulrahman (Al Hilal).
james@khaleejtimes.com