The UAE Olympic football team made the cover of the April 1, 2015 edition after qualifying for the Asian Under-23 Championship with an all-win record.
Their three straight wins took them one step closer to qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
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Having defeated Sri Lanka and Tajikistan in their first two matches, the UAE beat Yemen 1-0 on Tuesday to qualify as Group D winners for the 16-nation continental championships, which will be held in Qatar next year from January 12-30.
The top three teams at that tournament will get a ticket to the Rio Games and the UAE coaching staff is confident their team can clinch one of those spots.
“We played three matches in five days and the results are proof of our efforts,” said Noureddine Abidi, who is one of coach Abdullah Misfir’s assistants. “We finished at the top of the group, with the best attack and best defence – we conceded zero goals and scored eight.
“We had the team together for a very short duration, only three weeks, but thankfully we have managed to achieve our target, do the job that we were expected to do.”
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