Sparky’s Column

Sideline with sparky

UAE football fans will be wondering where to focus their attention this week. The Gulf Cup gets underway in the Port of Aden on Monday, the UAE is in action a day later against Iraq and by the time this game gets underway at 8pm we will know how the UAE Olympic team has fared in the semi-finals of the Asian Games. Their 9-8 penalty victory against North Korea was a nail biting way to make it to the semi-finals, but the victory shows the strength of the young squad. Especially considering the North Korean team contained a number of players that featured in the World Cup earlier this year. They will now face the daunting prospect of South Korea in Tuesday's semi-final.

If you search on 'UAE football' on Google, then inevitably a reference to Manchester City appears several times in the search results. The UAE's domestic football barely gets a mention outside of these shores. However, UAE football made an impression on the windier and colder shores of Scotland this week when Phil Anderton featured in the Scotsman Newspaper talking about his life as Al Jazira's Chief Executive. The many successes of the Abu Dhabi based club are highlighted, in particular the 28,000 crowd for the game versus Al Wasl earlier this season. It seems surreal someone in Scotland will be reading about football in the UAE but I think it shows some of the progress that is being made here.

The Etisalat Cup ticks along and the results from the weekend featured plenty of local talent getting on the score sheet. The goals tally is normally dominated by foreign players but Saturday in particular, gave the local players a chance to shine. The Etisalat Cup is a difficult competition to predict. The results have been hard to asses. Al Wahda, the League champions, have failed to perform in the competition despite having all local players available in preparation for the FIFA Club World Club Championship. Bani Yas have also struggled, losing 2-0 to Dubai Club at the weekend. The Club is a hotbed for young Emirati talent so it's no surprise that with a number of players missing they have failed to match their League form in the Etisalat Cup matches. Al Nasr have benefitted from not having a large number of internationals and the form of their foreign players. Former Dynamo Kiev striker Ismaël Bangoura has led the way with five goals in the competition giving Al Nasr a realistic chance of their first piece of silverware since 2002. The game on the 26th between the Blue Wave (Al Nasr) and Al Ain should go a long way to deciding the semi-finalists.