UAE to test Gulf Cup credentials

Dubai: Tuesday night’s friendly against Gulf Cup holders Kuwait will give the UAE an early barometer of their competitiveness ahead of the biannual competition’s return in January 2013 in Bahrain.

New coach Mahdi Ali’s second match in charge, following last Thursday’s creditable 1-0 loss away to Japan, will kick-off at 7.30pm at Al Ahli’s Rashid Stadium.

Currently the third-best GCC side in the world rankings behind Qatar and Oman, Kuwait will offer sixth-placed UAE another tough test following their promising dual with the current Asian Cup champions last week.

But after conceding from a lone second half header by Mike Havenaar, similar to the goal Great Britain’s Ryan Giggs scored past Ali’s UAE Olympic team at London 2012, aerial defence will surely be a focus.

But with the continued absence of Al Ahli defender Saeed Suroor and Al Ain’s Ali Al Wahaibi, Esmail Ahmad and Faris Juma, as well as Al Wahda striker Esmail Matar, it will be no easy task for Ali’s outfit.

Appointed as coach last month, the former UAE Under-23 team manager is busy planning for January’s Gulf Cup and the start of 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers in February. More testing warm-ups have also been planned with matches against Australia and Slovenia scheduled for October 12 and November 14 respectively.