Sport | Football
UAE France bound for World Cup glory
The UAE beach soccer national team left on Monday left for France following a one-week training camp in Milan preparing for the Beach Soccer World Cup finals to be held in Marseille from July 17 to 27.
- By Sayed Ali, Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:08 July 15, 2008
- UAE skipper Bakhit Sa'ad vies with Japanes players in the final of the Asian World Cup qualifiers at Al Mamzar Beach in Dubai. The UAE squad are ready to takle their rivals in the Beach Soccer World Cup finals, to be held in Marseille from Thursday.
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
Dubai: The UAE beach soccer national team left on Monday left for France following a one-week training camp in Milan preparing for the Beach Soccer World Cup finals to be held in Marseille from July 17 to 27.
It will be the second time for the UAE to play in the World Cup finals - last year they played in the finals held in Brazil and were eliminated from the first round.
The team played several warm-up matches against Italian teams during the seven days stay in Milan.
The preparation programme began in June under Brazilian coach Marcelo Mindes at Al Mamzar park in Dubai. The team participated in the Arab Beach Soccer Championships held in Egypt at the beginning of July. They won the silver medal and second place after they lost in the final 5-3 to Libya.
The UAE's manager Badr Hareb said that the team is ready for the biggest gathering of beach soccer in the world. "The Arab Championships in Egypt in which we finished second and the Milan training camp helped the players to reach a very good standard of fitness and technique to enter the World Cup finals in excellent form," said Badr Hareb.
Rashid Al Za'abi, FA board member and head of the Beach Soccer Committee, leaves today for Marseille to head the UAE delegation in the world cup.
The UAE will be represented in the finals by the 12 players who clinched the Asian championships held in Dubai last May. The players include Bakhit Sa'ad (captain), Abbas Mussa, Qambar Mohammad, Haydar Abbas, Ali Hasan Karim, Ali Hasan Cozad, Ebrahim Rajab, Ali Suliman, Mohammad Abbas, Rami Abdullah, Hasan Abbas, and Mohammad Hamza.
Approaching games
The UAE's first match in group C will be against Cameroon on Friday 18, the second on the 20th against Argentina and last match against Russia on the 22nd. If they win first or second place in group C, they qualify for the quarterfinals which will be played on a knock out system.
The participation in two World Cup finals in 2007 in Brazil and 2008 in France will be a good rehearsal for UAE hosting the finals in 2009.
After finishing second in Eypt, the Milan training camp helped the players to reach a very good standard of fitness and technique to enter the World Cup finals in excellent form."
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