ABU DHABI // A match that began heaving late on Saturday night and continued to sweat profusely early into Sunday ended with this UAE side tossing a fistful of eminently winnable World Cup points, and their fans unloading plastic cartons, into the twilight zone. If the local followers lost their decorum in defeat, the UAE have clearly lost the initiative.
In the witching hour on Sunday morning, Bruno Metsu's side sustained a ghoulish defeat. Against a mechanical, but highly mundane North Korea side, the home side were found wanting in terms of the guile or the gumption required to take out a set of opponents unwilling to yield in time. A couple of forays forward in the second half prompted goals from Choe Kum Chol after 70 minutes and a fine raking shot by the substitute An Chol Hyok in the 80th.
It winded the UAE on a night of no wind. With nine men plopped behind the ball and often only one man promoted to sustain their attacking interests in the first half, Korea were not so much an iron curtain as a sturdy set of blackout blinds put up to darken the leading lights of the home side. In an Al Jazira stadium that is only half-built due to construction work, the UAE were bitpart players. Whatever notions are constructed about UAE players, such as the stocky attacker Ismail Matar, participating in an elite European league, this team does not seem to possess the assets for a major tournament.
The UAE's effort probably did not merit defeat, but they wound up being a posse of honest triers. They probed feverishly in the first period, but fell into a mire of overplaying the ball. One extra pass, would find one extra Korean defender. The solitary goal they managed arrived courtesy of Basheer Saeed's rangy late shot that deflected into the net. If only they had been aware of the benefits of such a policy earlier in the evening when Korea had reserved the right to retreat.
The visiting fans cut vivid images in their raspberry red tops, but their side's idea of sabre-rattling in the first period was to cross the halfway line. If Saudi Arabia ransack Abu Dhabi and clasp three points on Wednesday, it is all over for the UAE. Any credible aspirations tend to disappear when you suffer successive home defeats. The question for Bruno Metsu before his side visit Pyongyang next March is: how do you solve a problem like Korea? A few of the finer points of strategy will tell you that pace must be injected in the final third, but it could be a worthless journey for the UAE by then.
One gets the impression that Korea could have enjoyed a richer night if they discarded their guarded approach. They have only lost one goal in seven World Cup qualifiers, and will face South Korea on Wednesday in neutral Shanghai in a hearty mood. Whether or not the horrific humidity stifled either side here is irrelevant. The UAE were fit enough of body, but not of mind. Korea turned up and opted to play in a style that was similar to one of those old home-and-away European Cup matches when the away side would darken one's door, hit on the break and take whatever came their way.
It worked to perfection for Steaua Bucharest in 1986 as they shut down Barcelona in the European Cup final in Seville to win on penalties, and it seems to fit snugly into the strategy of this Korea side. The shaggy-haired Metsu and his squad have traipsed around various training camps in Europe this summer, and knew for months what would confront them. Even on Friday, he extolled soundbites about the logistical problems of downing several men playing deeply.
The late former Dutch national coach Rinus Michels once reflected on his Holland side, that included Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, being held to a 0-0 draw with Egypt in the 1990 World Cup finals, and commented that when one side is trying to play and the other side is playing for a draw, you do not have have a true game of football. But then it was Michels who also said: "Professional football is something like war. Whoever behaves too properly is lost."
It is worth adding this was also a wretched evening for watching. These 90 minutes, or nearing 100 minutes, when you consider the referee added nine minutes to cover time-wasting and substitutions amid the plastic hurtling down on the Korea players, was a trial in itself, like sitting in a sauna with your clothes on. It is utter nonsense to suggest the UAE will ever host a World Cup, or a summer Olympic Games. No amount of cash can alter a climate that would be cruel to athletes. Camel racing in Antarctica would be a more viable prospect.
One appreciates why the Fifa president Sepp Blatter commented that he would be suspicious of any bid from the UAE to host the World Cup finals. Their fans, whether tooled up with plastic cartons or not, are learning that trying to qualify for such an elite tournament is a more weighty and relevant assignment. @Email:dkane@thenational.ae
