I wasn't surprised to see Bruno Metsu leave the UAE to coach Qatar. Reaching the World Cup finals has always been his target and when the Emirates lost their first two games at home it was going to be very hard for them to qualify. The Arabic mentality is also to get rid of coaches when things are going wrong, so he probably knew he could be on his way out anyway. With Qatar, he still has a chance of making the finals and his experience could help them achieve this for the first time.
They need to get something in Brisbane tomorrow against Australia and then home to Japan next month. These are the vital games and one thing Metsu has shown in the past is he gets results when it matters and gets the tactics right. He did it with Senegal when they beat France in the 2002 World Cup and he did it with the UAE when they won the Gulf Cup last year, even though they were not considered the best team in the competition.
It shows he can lift the players to perform better than expected, and having coached in the Qatari league Metsu knows these players. He also brought Sebastian Soria to the country from Uruguay and he is now their best player. Soria is a good striker, strong in the air, and he could cause Australia problems. But even though it would be great to see a Gulf country reach the finals, it will be a very difficult game for Qatar. I still think Australia and Japan will go through automatically from Group One.
These two have a winning mentality and the experience at this level to cope with the pressure, something Qatar and Uzbekistan do not. At this stage, it is very tight and you cannot afford to make a mistake and lose. Australia have some great players from the Premier League like Tim Cahill, Lucas Neill and Mark Schwarzer. For me, Cahill is one of the best in Asia. He is so dangerous and can change a game with important goals from nowhere, like he did against us in the Asian Cup last year when we drew. He does it all the time for Everton, and I don't know how he gets into such great positions even though everyone knows what a threat he is. In Group Two, South Korea and Saudi Arabia were the two I always thought would be the strongest.
That's why I think it will be very hard for the UAE to get anything in Seoul tomorrow. The players will try to impress for the new coach and still have an outside chance of finishing third and achieving a play-off place, but South Korea are strong and skilful. North Korea have made a good start and are top, but I don't see that staying the same. They go to Iran tomorrow and I see Ali Karimi has refused to play for the team.
I think that's wrong. Ali will have his reasons, but even if you have problems with the coach or the FA, playing for your country should be an honour. Some people don't get the chance to do this or play in a World Cup, and the Iranian supporters would want to see their best players in the team. I would have loved to have been playing in the qualifiers tomorow with Oman, but instead we have a friendly against Espanyol as part of our training camp.
It's good to be playing as I have not had much first-team action for Bolton so far this season. That has been frustrating and hopefully I will get a chance and show again what I can do, like last season. @Email:sports@thenational.ae
