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Hasek hopeful of future despite loss

Despite their fourth defeat in five matches, Al Ahli Dubai has enough reasons to look forward to a brighter future.

  • By Alaric Gomes, Senior Reporter
  • Published: 22:51 May 7, 2009
  • Gulf News

Dubai: Despite their fourth defeat in five matches, Al Ahli Dubai has enough reasons to look forward to a brighter future.

"I am very happy with the performance of my young players and I believe that we can go on to win many tournaments with them in the future," confessed Al Ahli coach Ivan Hasek despite his team's 2-0 loss to Uzbek side Pakhtakor on Wednesday.

Hasek's biggest headache of late has been a string of injuries suffered by some of his key players. Despite this handicap, Al Ahli have clung to their top spot in the UAE Football League (UFL), three points shy of second-placed Al Jazira.

The experienced Saleem Khamis is still not fully match fit, while Hassan Ali Ebrahim and Adil Abdul Aziz have been ruled out for the remainder of the season. Ahmad Khalil is still a non-starter after a gruelling early part of this season that has taken its toll on the 17-year-old star of the future. And older brother Faisal Khalil has slowly made a comeback following a three-month lay-off at the beginning of this year.

Hasek has been pleased with the solidity the team has gained through a relatively inexperienced bench strength. However, this was suitably exposed on Wednesday in Tashkent when Pakhtakor scored once in each half to seal full points and stay at the top of the Group A standings.

"The first goal was due to a mistake from our defenders. But that goal did much more than that as it resulted in our morale going down," Hasek admitted.

"And then conceding the second goal completely demolished them," added the Czech coach.

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