Abu Dhabi: Fresh after their Arabian Gulf Super Cup triumph over Al Nasr, champions Al Ain start their title defence in the Arabian Gulf League against Al Dhafra at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on Friday.
Last year’s runner-up Al Jazira also start their campaign under Abel Braga, who led them to the 2011 Arabian Gulf League and President’s Cup success, with a clash against Al Wasl at the Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium at 8.30pm.
Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic was in a fiery mood during the press briefing after the Super Cup success and blasted his critics who had written him off after Al Ain crashed out of the AFC Champions League to local outfits Al Ahli.
Dalic, who won the best coach award for the 2014-15 season, once again took a dig at his detractors - saying that he will once again emerge as the best amongst his team and the staff at least - if not among the people around.
“Yes, I was best coach; that was two months ago and I really forgot,” said Dalic with a tinge of sarcasm, adding, “What I want to say is, I will at least be best amongst my team and my staff. I trust my team a lot and I’m confident that we will play with full concentration and we will try to get those three points from the first game.”
Dalic went on to add that the title in Morocco and the Super Cup win had done a world of good to the team’s confidence ahead of the League. “It was great to open season with two trophies. Now the most important tournament is getting under way. It will be nice to open the league on a high. We will have tough game against Dhafra with the weather being testing.
“We are favourites for this game for sure but we should be careful as Dhafra are a good team and they have a strong striker in Diop [Makhete],” said Dalic, who expressed the view that Al Ain need to improve in their defence as they have conceded some easy goals in the friendlies and in the Morocco and Super Cup title matches.
“We are still trying to strengthen the defence and yes, we have conceded some silly goals. We play 4-2-3-1 every time and these players who play in the middle can switch positions and can go inside and outside. However, sometimes we have problem because everyone go inside and lot of that has to do with the weather and players needing rest and when you want to do that you tend to go inside. However, we will fix that soon.”
Braga, in the pre-match press conference, revealed that he was excited and passionate about his first outing after returning to the club but felt they need to strengthen their back line. “I spoke with the players about last season and the goal difference. I’m not happy and they need to improve. I’m not blaming them but I will not accept the same this season,” said the Brazilian.
“We lost the title but how did we not get the title when we scored more goals than Al Ain? We scored goals but we also conceded many goals. If we can get the defence to match the attack, then we can win the title,” felt the 62-year-old, who felt that Al Wasl will pose some threat as the team had matured well under Argentine Gabriel Calderon towards the latter part of the last season.
“I did watch a couple of their matches on internet but I have seen them when [Diego] Maradona was the manager. There is another Argentine coach now so it is a similar style. It’s going to be an important game for both teams.”
Al Wasl coach Calderon accepted that their clash against Al Jazira will be a test of fire for his boys but he backed his team to do well. “Everyone knows how strong Al Jazira are, they have a new coach and new players who are used to playing at the highest level, but I trust my players ability to emerge well from a difficult game.
“Our camp was helpful, we played eight friendlies but in four of these games I fielded completely different elevens in each half so it can be considered serious training rather than a game. Under this framework, we achieved targets from camp,” said Calderon.
