Players' well-being in sharp focus

Abu Dhabi: The technical staff of the national football team are pulling out all the stops to protect the players from fatigue and injury ahead of their crucial 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Iran on Monday.

Bearing in mind that most of the players have yet to recover from a demanding domestic season, and the fact that they have to play four competitive matches in the space of three weeks, the focus has been on preservation.

The UAE face Iran in Tehran on June 2 and host them on June 7.

They then play Kuwait in an away game on June 14 and sign off their qualifiers with a home game against Syria on June 22.

"The team is conducting recovering training sessions," Abdullah Al Hassan, the former Al Wahda coach and the administrator of the team, told Gulf News yesterday.

"They are mainly doing exercises and aim to maintain the players' physical and psychological levels following a long and tough season. Any over-dose of training at this stage of the preparations will have a bad effect and might backfire in the form of injuries or saturation."

Finals

"We have to play four strong matches within 20 days and we have to win as many as we can to achieve our goal of reaching the second round of the qualifiers and then proceed to the finals of the World Cup in South Africa.

"Which means we have to keep our team in top shape knowing that every single point won will take us closer to the second round," Al Hassan added.

Regarding Monday's match against Iran Al Hassan commented: "It is a difficult match. Iran is a team which does not lose easily at home. But we have to believe, that despite their glorious history and past achievements, they can be beaten. Syria have proved that they are not invincible when they held them to a goalless draw in Tehran. We drew our away game against Syria and can achieve a positive result in Tehran. "The Iranian team is comprised of almost the same players over the last decade and while they have vast experience, they lack the energy and stamina of youth which our team boasts of," Al Hassan pointed out. "I believe that the Iranian team will feature most of their players who play professional football in Europe like Mehdavikia, Hashimian and Nikonam. In addition the team will include players who play in the UAE league, like Ali Samerah, Mobali, Reza Enyati, Mehdad Ma'danji, Kazimiyan and Middawdi. Our players know how to play against them. So, we are optimistic and have confidence in our team and we will work hard to maintain our top position in the group." Al Hassan concluded. The UAE leads Group 5 with 4 points from 2 matches. They are followed by Iran and Syria with 2 points each while Kuwait have a single point.

Meanwhile striker Faisal Khalil has joined the team's training sessions after returning from Romania where he took part in the charity match with Luis Figo Friends team earlier this week. Khalil is expected to lead the UAE's attack alongside Esmail Mattar.