In the forlorn aftermath of the UAE’s home draw with North Korea on Thursday night, cheer was hard to come by.
Captain Khalid Essa completed his post-match media commitments in the bowels of the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain with a sense of duty, if not enthusiasm.
Then he was asked about what happens next, and the navel gazing stopped. Midway through the Arabic translation of a question about the prospect of playing at a packed and partisan stadium in Tashkent next, he interrupted, beamed a winning smile, and said in English: “I like it.”
The Milliy Stadium in Tashkent holds 34,000 and is almost always packed, such as on Thursday night when Uzbekistan shared a goalless draw with Iran.
That point against the top-ranked side in the pool leaves the Uzbeks on top of the table in Group A of the third round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
Uzbekistan have never played at a World Cup. It might only be early days, with three of 10 matches played, but it already feels like Tuesday’s game against the UAE might be pivotal to their chances of breaking that duck and making it to the main event.
Given what is at stake, with tickets starting at 40,000 soms (equivalent to Dh11), it is safe to assume the Milliy will be packed to the rafters again on Tuesday, all baying for the Uzbeks.
And Essa says that is just the way he likes it. The goalkeeper-captain might be gently spoken, but he wants to amplify his message: the UAE are up for the fight in this qualifying campaign.
UAE held to draw by North Korea
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UAE's Yahya Al Ghassani scores in the World Cup qualifier against North Korea at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain on Thursday, October 10, 2024. All images Chris Whiteoak / The National -
UAE's Caio Canedo pleads for a foul against North Korea at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium. North Korea scored a late equaliser to share the points on Thursday -
Ali Salmeen of UAE battles for the ball with Kwang Song Han of North Korea -
UAE's Kouame Autonne jumps for a header in Al Ain -
UAE fans at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium -
UAE manager Paulo Bento at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium -
UAE's Harib Abdalla vies for the ball with Kuk-Bom Kim of North Korea
“I want the media to share this message: we always try to be calm and be positive,” Essa said. “If you go back 10 or 15 years, the results of the national team outside the UAE have been better than home games.
“We give everything we have to get a good result, and we want to contend in all these tournaments. When we go away, we get good results. I don’t want to say the reason for that, [but] we are ready to bounce back in the next games.”
It is possible that Essa is conflating national team memories with personal ones. He, probably more than anyone else in the squad, has an impressive catalogue of away day recollections to call on.
Some of the most vivid are in the very recent past, on club duty with Al Ain on the march to AFC Champions League glory last season.
They closed out aggregate wins over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr, and Al Hilal, in Riyadh on the way to that title. The first of those wins was brought about largely by Essa’s own heroics, both in normal time then a penalty shootout.
Like he suggests, the national team have good memories to draw on, too. Last month they came from behind to take a shock 3-1 win from Asian Cup champions Qatar in Doha.
In the previous round of Asian qualifying for the World Cup, they had a rousing win against another Gulf rival in Bahrain.
And going even further back into the mists of time, Essa was a central figure in one of the UAE’s greatest ever wins. Back in 2016, as they attempted to make the Russia World Cup, they overturned an early deficit to beat a star-studded Japan side 2-1 in front of 60,000 fans in Saitama.
Having a surf of YouTube to pick out the good times past might be just what the national team’s players need right now. They had been in high spirits after the opening round of matches last month, but that atmosphere was punctured by the under-par display against North Korea.
The UAE failed to match the work-rate of the Koreans, and the tepid display on the field was mirrored by the fact just 8,536 were there to see it. That is less than half the attendance of the previous game, which was the 1-0 loss to Iran.
Essa backed his colleagues, saying he could not fault their effort, but urged them to refocus ahead of the game in Tashkent.
“Always in football mistakes happen and maybe it was down to not being focused and not making the right decision at the right time,” Essa said.
“The coach [Paulo Bento] has seen all the mistakes in our performance and of course will try to improve it against Uzbekistan. I know we lost the points, but I think the players put in a good effort.”
The Uzbeks have a line-up that includes players who feature in various foreign leagues, such as Russia, Saudi, and France, while Eldor Shomurodov, their captain, plays for Serie A club Roma.
The UAE, by contrast, draw their squad almost entirely from the Pro League. Only England-based Mackenzie Hunt, who made a brief cameo at the end of the win in Qatar, has featured in the campaign so far having arrived from overseas to join up with the national team.
The starting XI against North Korea was perhaps more noteworthy for who was left out than who was on the field at the beginning.
Ali Saleh, for example, has been in fine form on the wing for domestic champions Al Wasl, but has been limited to cameos from the bench so far this campaign for the national team. His club colleague, Fabio De Lima, did not make it onto the field against North Korea. Both Saleh and De Lima are fan favourites.
Bento said he picks players to suit the structure of the side, whether or not they are starters in their club sides.
“If they play in the league or don’t play in the league, that is something I can’t have any influence over,” Bento said. “Each season, more foreign players are playing in the league. It is normal that some of [the national team players] don’t play, but our possibility to select is not so big. We choose some players because of the characteristics they have.”
