UAE coach Mahdi Ali turned his attention to the 2015 Asian Cup after his side on Tuesday night defeated Oman 1-0 to secure a third-place finish in the Gulf Cup.
“Our aim was not to finish third, but this is football,” he said.
“For us, this was a game in which we were happy with the performance of the team. We were not lucky in this tournament and we hope that the team will do well in the Asian cup.”
The coach said it was natural that the consolation match would not reach the energy or excitement levels of Sunday’s semi-final loss to Saudi Arabia.
“When you play after only a day’s rest and you were so close to the final, that will no doubt have negative effect on the players,” he said.
“Some of the players hadn’t recovered physically and others hadn’t played together before, like Ismail Ahmed and Walid Abbas.”
The disappointment of not getting to the final invariably affected the intensity of the performance, he said.
“There are some things you can’t control, because the players may not be able to raise the standard in these circumstances,” he said. “But I thank them for their efforts and hopefully we can make it up in the Asian Cup.”
He highlighted several factors that played against the side.
“When we came here, we had some difficulties, we had several injured players,” he said. “I didn’t want to say this at the beginning of the tournament, but many players were physically not ready because they were just returning from injuries.
“We tried our very best to bring these players up to the level which we were aiming for.
“It was a very strong tournament, and there was a lot of pressure on all the teams, especially from the media and the fans,” he said.
“It was very challenging and all the matches were like derbies, so it’s good to play under this pressure, because our players will gain experience from this.”
The coach was keen to highlight the positives, saying the negatives should be analysed calmly after the tournament.
“I’m also very happy that Ali Mabkhout scored five goals,” the manager said. “I hope that he finishes as top scorer. There is one match left and he deserves it.
“[Reserve goalie] Khalid Essa also played a very good game.”
akhaled@thenational.ae
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