ABU DHABI // The enthusiasm, passion and the smiles of the Emirati players has rubbed on the Manchester City Women’s Football Club players, according to their coach Nick Cushing.
City’s women footballers have been training alongside the UAE women’s team at the New York University pitch for the last four days and will spend a session tonight at Zayed Sports City as part of a week-long camp in Abu Dhabi.
“In England we train a lot and play a lot of games, and sometimes when you feel a bit tired and when it’s cold, particularly at this time of the year, sometimes the enthusiasm drops a little bit,” said Cushing during a reception hosted by Abaar Investments (Abaar) at the International Petroleum Investment Company on Monday.
“Here we trained and played alongside a national team with a set of players with real enthusiasm and real passion, who smile when they play. I think that’s rubbed off on our footballers which we’ll take back home with us.”
Noora Al Mazrouei, the Emirati goalkeeper, was so impressed by City’s training, she is seriously thinking of playing full-time football.
“Once I attended a trial in the United States but wasn’t successful. I gave up that idea. Now after training with the City players I am thinking of attending a trial outside the country to play professionally,” she said.
Cushing believes the camp in Abu Dhabi has been a real benefit for them and a real positive as it has provided the players and the technical staff the chance to set their targets and objectives for the new season.
“We are training at an unbelievable facility. We have been able to train every day and double our football sessions,” he said.
“When you have a facility at that level means you can push a little harder and really push them to get a lot of work out of them.”
MCWFC won the FA Women’s Super League Continental Cup and finished fifth in the WSL behind Liverpool last season.
Cushing has raised the bar for the new season. “In football you have to always evolve,” he said. “I am a real believer you have to improve every year. We have added five new players of real quality, international players from England and Scotland. That means the target and objectives go up.”
Steph Houghton, the England and City captain, believes the camp has provided an opportunity for the players to spend quality time together.
“It was a good experience for us and off the pitch we have learnt a great deal about the culture of this country. And on the pitch we have had real good training.
“As a club we always pride ourselves how we train. It is important for us to be ready for the season but we got a long way to go and we want to make sure everyone stay healthy and ready for the first game.
“We fly back on Thursday and then start training again back home from Monday. We came away with one trophy last year and obviously the objectives are to do better this season.”
MNWFC’s visit to Abu Dhabi was sponsored by Aabar who entered into a new partnership with the club.
As part of the agreement, Manchester City Women’s will receive a range of match-day advertising at the new Academy Stadium, where the team will play their home games.
apassela@thenational.ae
