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UAE Team face Australia in the first match of the 2012 London Olympic finals

 

The UAE Football Olympic Team will face their Australia counterparts in the first match of Group "B" of the final Asian qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics, which includes also Iraq and Uzbekistan. The game will be played tomorrow Wednesday, September 21st, kick off 2:30pm at Hind Marsh stadium in the Australian city of Adelaide.

The team's players have completed their preparations under the supervision of their coach Mahdi Ali after organizing a warm up camp in Perth City in Australia for ten days. They look forward to qualify to the 2012 London Olympics for the first time in the history of the UAE football, which has qualified to all World Championships (World Cup finals for senior, youth and juniors teams).

Mahdi Ali is expected to field in tomorrow's match a line up including: Ahmed Mahmoud as goalkeeper, Abdulaziz Haikal, Saad Suroor, Mohammad Ahmed, Abdul Aziz Sangahoor in defense line, Mohammad Fawzi, Amer Abdul Rahman, Rashid Essa and Diyab Awana for the midfield zone, Ahmed Khalil and Ali Mabkhout spearheading the offensive line.

The Australian team's players, who will be playing at home in front of their fans, are looking to snatch the three points, although they are missing five of their key professional players who are joining European clubs after their clubs refused to release them on the grounds that the Olympic qualifying matches are not included in the FIFA calendar.

Mahdi Ali confirmed in the press conference held this morning in the stadium meetings' hall his confidence in the abilities of his players to achieve a positive result, noting that qualifying to the 2012 London Olympics will not be through winning only one game, but must win points of six games in the final qualifications.

The Australia coach Aurelio Vidmar, stated in the press conference that he will face in tomorrow's match one of the Asian strongest teams, and therefore his players will play with great care. He said that the game is difficult for both teams as it is the first match in the qualifications.

Japanese referees including Togo Muniro as match referee and his assistants Taji Toshiyuki and Nishio Hdekke and the fourth referee Vo Min Tri from Vietnam will officiate the game.