Abu Dhabi: The Al Jazira coach, Henk ten Cate, is eager to exacerbate Abu Dhabi rivals Al Wahda’s “frustrating” start to the Arabian Gulf League season with victory in Friday evening’s derby.
Ten Cate’s men approach the Al Nahyan Stadium encounter brimming with confidence, having beaten Al Wasl 3-1 at home last Saturday in their AGL opener.
And the Dutchman is determined to capitalise on any potential psychological frailty in Javier Aguirre’s side after Wahda were held to a disappointing goalless draw away to newly promoted Hatta last week.
“A loss for them would mean that they would be five points behind us after the negative of drawing at Hatta in the opening round, which must have caused them some frustration,” Ten Cate said at his pre-match press conference. “I think we are in a better frame of mind than them ahead of the game and I hope that we succeed in exploiting this advantage optimally.”
Ten Cate is, however, mindful of the considerable attacking threat Wahda pose through last season’s AGL leading goalscorer Sebastian Tagliabue, the Chile playmaker Jorge Valdiviva and their star summer signing Balazs Dzsudzsk, the Hungary captain.
“Wahda are contenders to win the league title this season and I think the strongest part of their team is their attack,” he said, adding that the veteran UAE striker, Esmail Mattar, also desevers special attention.
Yet Ten Cate insists Jazira themselves are a potent force given the predatory presence of Ali Mabkhout, who scored a brace in the win over Wasl and who was the leading Emirati scorer in the AGL last season with 23 goals.
“For me, Ali Mabkhout is the best striker in the UAE, better than all the foreign attackers in all the clubs here,” he said.
“A derby is always a special game. It’s more about the emotions,” Ten Cate added, before dismissing any significance of his side’s 2-2 home draw with Wahda earlier this month in the Arabian Gulf Cup.
He pointed out that both sides were deprived of their UAE players due to the international break.
Aguirre agreed, commenting: “The cup games are different to the league games. We returned with a point from Hatta but that’s not a bad result for us.
“If we can win the three points against Jazira, we will be straight back as a title challenger.”
The Argentine added that he recognised the “difficulty of the game against a professional team”, but warned Jazira that his side would be at full strength.
Meanwhile, the Pride of Abu Dhabi are still likely to be without their striker Mirko Vucinic, who has not played a competitive game since tearing cruciate ligaments last November.
Elsewhere on Friday, Sharjah host Hatta searching for their first points of the season after being beaten 2-1 by Al Shabab last week.
Shabab are also in action away to Kalba, who kicked off their AGL campaign with a 1-0 away win at Dibba.
The match is a repeat of the two sides’ Arabian Gulf Cup showdown earlier this month, which Shabab won with ease, 3-0.
ARABIAN GULF LEAGUE
Friday’s games
Sharjah vs Hatta, 5.25pm
Kalba vs Al Shabab, 5.25pm
Al Wahda vs Al Jazira, 8.15pm
