Abu Dhabi: Cosmin Olaroiu of Al Ain and Franky Vercauteren of Al Jazira are the managers showing smiles at the end of the tenth week of the Etisalat Pro League.
Al Ain with 24 points from 10 matches have secured the leadership of the major domestic competition at the halfway stage next week irrespective of the outcome of their match against Ajman. They are four points clear of reigning champions Al Jazira in second.
Olaroiu and Al Ain won a valuable point from their last mach away to Al Shabab, who were in second - a good result bearing in mind the absence of his team's two foreign strikers, Yasir Qahtani and Asamoah Gyan.
It is natural for everybody to feel happy when their plans succeed, and the more far-fetched these plans were, the happier they feel. This was the case for Vercauteren after he inspired his team to come from behind to beat their traditional rivals, Al Wahda, 4-2 in the capital derby with an attacking gamble in the last 15 minutes.
Trailing 2-1 with only 15 minutes to go, Vercauteren brought off Khamis Esmail and Subait Khater, two pivotal players, and replaced them with reserve strikers Abdulla Qasim and Bare to play with four up front. His team subsequently scored three goals in the last quarter of an hour to win and reclaim the second place they lost to Al shabab last week.
Al Nasr, Al Ahli, Ajman and Dubai were the other winners of the week and they all improved their positions in the standings, while the biggest losers were Al Wahda, Al Wasl, Bani Yas, Sharjah and Emirates.
Sharjah in particular are in a critical position, placed bottom with only eight points, the same tally of Dubai, who have a better goal difference. Sharjah have changed coach three times since the start of the competition and rarely does that lead to good results.
Meanwhile, Emirates realised that their new Tunisian coach, Lutfi Al Banzarti, does not possess a magic wand to change their fortunes and they went down 3-1 at home to Al Nasr, as Walter Zenga's men continued their climb up the standings.
