Sport | Football
UAE Under-17s soccer team in opening game victory
The UAE Under-17 soccer team began their defence of the GCC Youth Championship by defeating Oman 2-0 on Sunday.
- By Sayed Ali, Senior Reporter
- Published: 23:35 August 3, 2008
Dubai: The UAE Under-17 soccer team began their defence of the GCC Youth Championship by defeating Oman 2-0 on Sunday.
The UAE youth side put on a a good performance in their in their opening game of the tournament, which is being held in Abha, Saudi Arabia.
Abdullah Eisa opened the scoring for the UAE just five minutes from kick off.
He benefited from an error by the goalkeeper, Al Habssy, when his short pass to a teammate outside the box was intercepted by Eisa.
The forward was able to place the ball to the left of the goalkeeper.
Poor finishing
The UAE dominated the first half but Oman managed to create some good chances only to be let down by poor finishing.
UAE defenders Majid Mohammad and Abdul Rahman Yousuf both made important blocks while with keeper Eisa Abbas made a number of saves.
The two teams shared dominance in the second half with UAE's Abdullah Eisa, Fahd Hadid, Mohammad Hussain and Ahmad Esmail, all threatening to the Oman goal.
Outstanding goal
Mohammad Hussain managed to grab a second with a superb goal in the 54th minute.
He went past three defenders and fired a right foot shot to the right of the Omani golakeeper Al Habssy.
The Omanis had their chances with Abdullah Mohammad wasting a good chance to reduce the deficit but he missed badly, sending the ball well wide.
Al Habssy made amends for his earlier error with a string saves including tipping a shot from Abdullah Eisa round the post for a corner in the 78th minute.
Oman were reduced to ten men in the 87th minute when the referee when substitute Saeed Al Talliee was given hi marching orders for a bad tackle.
UAE seemed to show the benefit of the training camp they held in Tunisia recently.
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