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UAE hold Australia to a goalless draw in friendly encounter

The UAE Senior Football National Team have concluded their five-day warm-up camp held in Al Ain on Wednesday night with a goalless friendly encounter against Australia at Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium. It was their second friendly match before the team fly on Friday, January 7th  to Qatar to take part in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup which kicks-off that evening in Doha and continues until January 29th.

As it was the last game in the preparation stage, the Slovenian UAE National Team coach Srecko Katanec was keen to field his most probable line-up of players to test their technical, physical and mental readiness ahead of the major continental tournament. The UAE squad are classified in Group 4 for the tournament, along with North Korea, Iraq and Iran whom they face on 11th, 15th and 19th this month respectively.

The team demonstrated a superb display against Australia controlling the game throughout, with the exception of the opening minutes during which their rivals came close to scoring on two occasions. Matt McKay shot over the cross bar from inside the box after receiving a brilliant pass from his teammate Scot McDonald in the 22nd minute, followed by a fierce shot launched by Nathan Burns, which UAE goalkeeper  Majed Naser saved bravely one minute later. UAE midfielder Subait Khatir was the first to threaten the Australians when he sent a rocket-like volley that rebounded off the goalkeeper's hands and was then cleared by a defender only nine minutes after the break. The Australian captain Lucas Neill smacked the ball into the net four minutes later, but Kuwaiti referee Ali Shaaban disallowed the goal because of an offside.

Both coaches, the UAE's Srecko Katanec and his German counterpart Holger Osteck of Australia made a number of substitutes in the last half hour to test more players. The UAE players launched a series of attacks in the last minutes and the substitute Saeed Al Kas, who joined the team in the last few days, squandered a brilliant opportunity when he shot wide from inside the penalty area in the 69th minute. Subait Khatir's free-kick was also saved by the visitors' goalkeeper Bradley Jones seven minutes before time and the post denied Faris Juma'a another sitter two minutes later.

The UAE delegation will leave for Doha on Friday, January, 7th,  and will include 23 players after Katanec excluded three player following the game against Australia namely Abdul Aziz Haikal, Mohammed Ahmad "Al Shabab" and Ahmad Juma'a "Al Jazira".

Katanec assures the difficulty of winning the Asian title

The UAE National Football Team coach, Srecko Katanec, expressed his deep satisfaction and conviction of his team's technical performance in their second friendly game against their Australian counterparts on Wednesday. 

Katanec said in the post-match press conference that he was content with the goalless draw, as the UAE team had faced a strong team with a great deal of experience, who demonstrated good tactics and had strong physical players. He added, "The UAE team have demonstrated a lovely technical standard and organized performance marred by successful movements on the pitch."

Katanec described the Australian team as one of the best teams in Asia, saying they played neat football in the first half of the match, although they did not show their normal level. Katanec said he benefited much from the match as he came out with several technical points.

The Slovenian coach revealed the lineup who faced Australia did not include all the elements that he will depend on in the AFC Asian Cup as he still has some names in mind that he will test in the coming days before the start of the tournament.

The Slovenian Coach assured the difficulty of winning the Asian title saying that he will well prepare the players before facing North Korea on January, 11th with all the hope to collect the first three points before playing against Iraq and Iran.