Abu Dhabi: UAE national football team legend Esmail Mattar insists the buoyant Whites can confidently target World Cup 2018 qualification following their third place at last month’s Asian Cup in Australia.
Mattar said such an impressive performance Down Under – ‘the best for 10 or 15 years’ – allied to the UAE’s 2013 Gulf Cup success, should no longer be the extent of Mahdi Ali’s heroes’ ambitions.
Instead, the 31-year-old striker says emulating their historic first World Cup appearance at Italia 1990 must become the major goal.
Mattar, who missed the Asian Cup due to a neck injury, said: “The World Cup is our target and this is what we can reach right now because the Asian Cup [in 2019] will be too far [away]. Of course, we have the Gulf Cup, but we have won that before and of course this is not a big compared to qualifying for the World Cup again after 1990.
“But that was a lot of years ago and I think to repeat that and qualify for the World Cup in Russia would be very big for us.”
The UAE’s third place at the Asian Cup, which was secured after a 3-2 win over Iraq last Friday, was their best finish at the continental tournament since they were runners-up in 1996.
But Al Wahda’s Mattar, who has netted 34 times in 112 UAE appearances, believes the Whites were unlucky not to have matched this achievement, having knocked defending champions Japan out at the quarter-final stage 5-4 on penalties.
He said eventual winners and hosts Australia, who overcame the UAE 2-0 in the semi-finals, were far inferior to the Blue Samurai.
Mattar, who was speaking at an Abu Dhabi Sports Council event at the Sofitel Hotel to celebrate the career and 45th birthday of Argentine football icon Gabriel Batistuta, said: “We beat the defending champions Japan and I think the Australian team were afraid to face Japan and we did a big favour for them. Australia is not the same level as Japan. I think the Japan team was much, much better than Australia.
“But this is football, so have to learn from the tournament. Okay, we are happy we got third but we were second before and I think this is not a big thing for us. We need to think about winning the Asian Cup.”
Mattar conceded he was sad to have missed the UAE’s Australian odyssey, but stressed that this was offset by his joy at watching his ‘friends’ such as Omar Abdul Rahman, Ali Mabkhout, the tournament’s leading goalscorer, and Ahmad Khalil excel.
“They enjoyed playing and showed that they have quality. Ali Mabkhout got the best goalscorer award for the tournament, which I think was the first time [this has happened] in the history of the country. Sure, I am sad [to have missed the event]. I love to be in this squad, especially because we’re more than a family. But this is part of life and I got injured before the training camp,” he said.
Mattar added that he had been in regular contact with the UAE players during the competition. “I was keeping in touch with them before and after each game,” he said. “We talked and discussed how we could play and how we saw things. I shared my experience with them every day after every game and this is good for me.”
