ABU DHABI // Henk ten Cate will get a good idea of the level of his players when Al Jazira host reigning champions Al Ahli in the Arabian Gulf League at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday.
The Abu Dhabi side are second in the table, just one point behind leaders Al Wasl after six games. But Ten Cate could not make any clearer the importance of Al Jazira’s performance against a quality side like Al Ahli.
The Dubai team are just one point adrift of Jazira but have a game in hand, and the Dutch manager is cautious ahead of what will likely be one of the season’s crucial fixtures.
“We want to see where we are, where we stand against a side like Ahli,” Ten Cate said. “We played some good games and got have good results. But now against the champions, we can see where we are against them.”
See also:
• Asian Champions League final: Abdulrahman, Ahmed and Salem sit out Al Ain training ahead of first leg
• Arabian Gulf Cup: Ciel returns to haunt former club as Al Ahli face anxious wait
• Arabian Gulf Cup: Ailton Almeida on target to take Al Jazira one step closer to semi-finals
Ten Cate considers Ahli to be title favourites.
“They have a big squad and good squad,” he said. “We want to see where we stand against them. So, this game is like a measuring point for us.”
Jazira remain the only unbeaten team in both the league and the Arabian Gulf Cup this season.
Yet the former Barcelona assistant manager said his focus was less on statistics than on the quality of his players’ performance on the pitch – especially against a side of Ahli’s calibre.
“Of course, we want to win this game but the measurement will not be the result,” he said.
“We can be lucky and win the game but for me the measurement is how we played against a big team and how a big team played against us, like what did they do and how we reacted, and things like that.”
Ten Cate, who pointed out his side were still “in construction”, also expressed unhappiness about the timing of the game, which was immediately after an international break.
“This could have been planned better because both teams had players playing for their countries in the World Cup qualifiers,” Ten Cate said.
“When players are away for two weeks it is not optimal to prepare for a big game like this. Anyway, we must play the game and we must prepare the best way we could.
“I had one player Mbark Boussoufa [of Morocco] returning for training today. Now, I must see how he’s going to react from the travelling, and that sort of things.”
Having said that, Ten Cate, 61, said that it was the big players who would rise to the occasion.
The other game on Saturday is Al Wahda at home to Kalba.
Round 7 of the AGL gets underway on Friday with leaders Wasl playing host to basement side Baniyas, and eighth-place Al Nasr travelling to 10th-placed Sharjah.
Al Shabab, in fifth place, host 12th-place Dibba at the Maktoum bin Rashid Stadium and second-bottom Emirates make the long journey to the Western Region to face Al Dhafra in the earlier games.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
