High praise for President's Cup winners

Dubai: The Al Wasl football team came in for praise after winning the President's Cup on Tuesday, but were urged to focus on the First Division League title.

Al Wasl top the 12-team league with 30 points, with seven matches still to be played.

"You deserved to win the President's Cup, you were the best in the final and showed an excellent performance," said Shaikh Mayed Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Al Wasl club Vice President.

"But we have to focus on winning the league championship. If we succeeded in winning the league title, it will be a tremendous achievement for the first time in our club's history."

Al Wasl beat Al Ain 4-1 at Zayed Sports City on Tuesday.

Most football experts thought that Al Wasl will lose the Cup final, after a heavy 5-2 defeat by Al Shaab in the league last Friday which would have wrecked their morale.

However, Al Wasl players put the defeat, which was the first for them in the league, out of their minds and entered the final with a high morale which helped them to win the Cup with a convincing 4-1 victory.

This was the second time for Al Wasl to clinch the President's Cup. The first was in 1987 when they defeated Al Khaleej club 2-1 in the final held at Zayed Sports City stadium, the same venue which witnessed their crowning on Tuesday night.

Before their last triumph, Al Wasl was one of the unlucky clubs in the Cup finals - they lost six finals and won only once, although they clinched the league title six times.

The team included UAE football legends like Zuhair Bakhit, Hasan Polo, Fahd Khamis, Fahd Abdul Rahman and his brother Farouq, Adil Annas, Esmail Rashid, Naser Khamis and others.

These players' retirement in 1997 affected the team badly, and from that season Al Wasl began their slump.

But after a long time, the young players gained experience and Brazilian coach Ze Mario, who took care of the team last July, built a strong team.

Ze Mario and the two Brazilian professionals Oliviera and Anderson were behind the excellent results Al Wasl achieved.

In addition to the two Brazilians, Al Wasl's golden team also includes talented players like Khalid Darwish, Tariq Darwish, Tariq Hasan, Eisa Ali, Abdullah Eisa, Salah Abbas, Mohammad Enazy and Majed Nasr, who was the UAE goalkeeper in the 18th Gulf Cup which the UAE won for the first time.

Al Wasl fans were delighted with their team clinching the Cup after nine unlucky years (1998 - 2006).

In the current season, Al Wasl are on top of the league table with 30 points and seven matches left. They will be eager to win the double after clinching the President's Cup.

The 2006-2007 season is one of the poorest seasons for Al Ain.

They lost the President's Cup. In the league they are sixth and may lose their chances of participating in the Asian Champions League next year, for the first time in recent years.

Al Ain have to rejuvenate their team and sign talented foreigners if they want to win titles as they were doing in the last decade. Most of the Al Ain squad are getting old and have to be replaced by youngsters.