'In-the-zone' Mahdi Ali is the man with the plan

Preparation, motivation, team selections, first XIs, substitutions, tactics – if Mahdi Ali were any hotter he would self-combust. Audio interview

UAE coach Mahdi Ali.

Athletes speak of being in "a zone", a magical dimension where time slows and distances shrink and tasks seem effortless and goals yawn wide. We typically do not think of coaches spending time in "the zone", but if such a thing were possible, then Mahdi Ali certainly is there now.

The coach of the UAE's Under 23 football team tends to get things right far more often than he does not. That is how a man comes to be entrusted with the future of the nation's favourite sport. But in the past three weeks he has hardly put a foot wrong.

Preparation, motivation, team selections, first XIs, substitutions, tactics … if the man were any hotter he would self-combust.

In the interim, his team have come back from the margins of relevance in Olympic qualifying by scoring 1-0 victories over Iraq and Australia. The former came in the face of widespread apathy towards an injury-ravaged and presumably doomed side, and the latter in a hothouse of suddenly enormous expectations against a side who had not missed an Olympic football tournament since 1980. But now have.

If the country tends to expect optimistic outcomes when their favourite age-group side play, how much of that is attributable to the man in the red baseball cap who has led them since 2008? Would they be what they are without Mahdi Ali?

The UAE had not scored a goal in three matches when they lined up to play the Iraqis in Doha. Given two months to ponder a way out of the morass, Mahdi Ali introduced Ahmed Ali, who had not been healthy for most of a year, into the line-up, and in the third minute the little forward banged in a goal from 30 yards.

The coach said later that the Baniyas front-runner had promised to score in this specific match, but surely he had seen something in training - a glint in the eye, an avidity over the ball - that led him to put Ahmed Ali onto the pitch.

What followed were 87 minutes of the UAE doing what they do best under Mahdi Ali, which is defend with will and skill.

His approach to the Australia match this week was more complicated, coming as it did in full view of the nation and with three prominent players back in the side.

The return of Hamdan Al Kamali, Ahmed Khalil and Omar Abdulrahman introduced a variety of questions. Should they play? How long?

The first had been training with the French club Lyon but had not played a match since January 15, with Al Wahda. Khalil had not played since January 5 amid confusing reports that he was injured or perhaps just out of favour at Al Ahli. Abdulrahman had appeared in just five Al Ain matches since knee surgery last summer, playing 90 minutes only once.

The correct answer - which is to say the Mahdi Ali answer: leave Al Kamali, who arrived late in camp, on the bench. Thrust Khalil and Abdulrahman into the line-up.

It was Khalil whose laser-guided free kick produced a desperate save and a corner kick. And it was Abdulrahman who took that corner and scored the remarkable goal, reprising his form of last spring, when he nearly single-handedly saved Al Ain from relegation.

The coach even found time to act in a promotional role, calling for a big turnout by UAE fans when he provocatively said: "Everyone who loves his country" would attend the match.

So it was that 28,724, or about five per cent of the nation's Emirati male population, were inside the stadium when his team vaulted to the top of the group and fans went home with memories of a magical night.

Mahdi Ali is in "a zone" which could soon embrace London. Perhaps it will come to include a leading role with the senior national team, as well.