UAE coach Mahdi Ali would not entertain any suggestions that his team has been handed a favourable draw for the 2015 Asian Cup.
The UAE is in Group C for the tournament in Australia with Iran, Qatar and Bahrain. It could have been much tougher – Japan, Iraq and North Korea was one possible combination – for all the difference it will make to the coach's famously meticulous preparations.
In private, we believe that the UAE coach would be reflecting that the draw has been as kind as could have been possible.
Group C has a distinct Arabian Gulf flavour to it, something that Mahdi Ali conceded after the draw he had been hoping to avoid.
He also confirmed that the identity of the UAE’s group opponents would have no effect on his training plans.
A look at Mahdi Ali’s greatest achievement would be cause for confidence for the coach and his team as they head into their biggest test yet.
When the UAE kick off their Australia 2015 campaign on January 11 in Canberra, it will be almost two years since the 2013 Gulf Cup of Nations triumph. Mahdi Ali will be well aware that his team comfortably beat Qatar – who they play first in Australia – and Bahrain at that tournament.
Since then, the UAE have gone from strength to strength and are on a 20-match unbeaten run. It is likely their neighbours will approach the matches in cautious mood, and for good reason.
A draw or better in the first group match is a priority for most teams and history has shown that matches between Gulf opponents tend to be defensive, low-scoring affairs.
It is Mahdi Ali’s nature, however, to approach such games aggressively. Indeed, the UAE kicked off the Gulf Cup in brilliant fashion with a 3-1 win against Qatar.
Their second match in the Gulf Cup was against hosts Bahrain, which they won 2-1 to secure a spot in the semi-finals with a game to spare.
A similar start in Australia would see the UAE progress to the quarter-finals before their last, and most difficult, group match against Iran in Brisbane on January 19.
Even in the event of the UAE having secured qualification by that point, they are likely to go all out for a win to ensure they top the group and avoid a last-eight meeting with the winners of Group D, most likely reigning champions Japan.
Further encouragement will come in the form of the UAE’s representatives at the 2014 Asian Champions League.
Against exclusively Gulf and Iranian clubs, Al Ain and Al Jazira top their groups after three match days, while Al Ahli are second on goal difference. Their nine matches have produced five wins, three draws and only one defeat.
Significantly, the three matches against Iranian opposition – against whom Emirati teams traditionally struggle – have resulted in two wins and a draw. Hopefully there will be no inferiority complex at international level either.
Such optimism though, you can be sure, will be tempered by Mahdi Ali. There are concerns to address as well as positives to maintain until next January.
How will Al Ain’s poor domestic form affect the club’s international contingent and how long before doubts over Omar Abdulrahman’s fitness and form are seriously cast?
On a brighter note, the coach will be hoping Jazira’s Ali Mabkhout continues his excellent goalscoring form at international level and that one or two other players will make a breakthrough in the way Al Ahli left-back Walid Abbas did so spectacularly in 2013.
Then there is Ahmed Khalil, who was sidelined for so long at Ahli, and the hope he can return to form at just the right time to again become one of Mahdi Ali’s go-to players.
The UAE’s incredible run of form in 2013 has paradoxically raised a serious question over their chances at the Asian Cup: has the team peaked too soon?
When Mahdi Ali took over as coach of the UAE seniors he had short, medium and long-term targets. Success at the Gulf Cup in 2013 was first, then making the last four at the 2015 Asian Cup before qualification to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The first was achieved and the team since have steadily made their way up the Fifa rankings to 61. Statistically that makes them Asia’s fifth-best team, behind Iran, Japan, South Korea and Uzbekistan.
The first three, with Australia, will be representing Asia at the World Cup this summer and will, alongside the seeded Uzbeks, be among the favourites next year.
Mahdi Ali’s team are poised to find out in a little over nine months just how much it will take to make the breakthrough at international level.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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