Injury-marred and light on any real hope of making next year’s World Cup, the UAE’s road to Russia ended in double disappointment on Tuesday.
Requiring victory in their Group B finale against Iraq in Jordan, even just to pile pressure on Saudi Arabia later in the night, Edgardo Bauza’s makeshift side could not even manage that.
They went down at the Amman International Stadium. With the 1-0 loss, so too any chance of reaching the finals next summer. The wait for that second World Cup appearance drags on.
To be fair, it always represented a long shot. Australia's earlier victory against Thailand – a one-sided but nervy affair – meant the UAE had only third place in the group and a play-off spot to aim for. Even still, a point for the Saudis in their home tussle with Japan would consign their West Asian rivals to fourth.
Eventually, the four-time World Cup participants defeated group winners Japan 1-0 in Jeddah to trade positions with Australia. Taking second, and consigning Australia to a play-off against Syria next month, they can now look forward to a first World Cup appearance since 2006.
The UAE can look to another period of introspection and dissection. Although already faint, they had entered the match against Iraq with some hope at least. They departed with a fifth defeat in 10 qualifiers.
Also read:
A look at how UAE have fared in their road to Russia
It was Ayman Hussein who condemned Bauza's boys to that, the striker bagging a first-half header. Iraq, stuck to fifth in the standings and therefore with little but professional pride to play for, concluded their campaign on a high. The UAE did the opposite.
In truth, their final assignment was never going to be straightforward. They were without a plethora of first-team regulars, including Asian player of the year Omar Abdulrahman and centre-back Ismail Ahmed, both injured. Ismail Al Hammadi and Majed Hassan have been long-term absentees. Striker Ali Mabkhout, midfielder Khamis Esmail and left-back Mahmoud Khamis were suspended.
Twelve minutes in against Iraq, right-back Mohammed Fawzi limped off. Within 16 minutes of that, the UAE were 1-0 down. A neat passing move worked its way across the edge of away side’s penalty area, then finished when Hussein powered a header high past Khalid Essa in the UAE goal. He took off towards the corner flag in celebration. With their World Cup quest crumbling, the UAE players plodded back to the centre circle.
It took until shortly before half time for them to muster any sort of response. Finally, Ahmed Khalil tested Iraq goalkeeper Mohammed Gassid, thrashing a long-range effort towards goal only for it to be expertly repelled. Overall, though, Khalil offered very little, the hero against the Saudis last week nowhere near his vintage seven days on.
With the UAE forward off-form, Gassid was rarely threatened thereafter. Substitute Tariq Ahmed tried his luck from the edge of the Iraq area, but it was collected easily. Khalil floated a free kick wide.
As the match wore on, the UAE ran out of ideas and ran out of steam. When the final whistle blew, they had run out of road, as well. In the end, plotting a route to Russia proved beyond them.
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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
Brief scores:
Scotland 371-5, 50 overs (C MacLeod 140 no, K Coetzer 58, G Munsey 55)
England 365 all out, 48.5 overs (J Bairstow 105, A Hales 52; M Watt 3-55)
Result: Scotland won by six runs
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
MATCH INFO
Austria 2
Hinteregger (53'), Schopf (69')
Germany 1
Ozil (11')