Al Ain prepare for Pro-League campaign with European tour

Abu Dhabi: After flirting with relegation during the 2010-11 UAE Pro-League, former Asian Club champions Al Ain are being put through their paces by Romanian Cosmin Olaroiu in the Italian city of Brunico.

The 2003 AFC Champions League winners and the UAE's most successful club are currently in the first phase of their twin European tour which will take them to Logan in Austria next.

First team manager Mattar Al Shabani said Al Ain will be playing their first game Tuesday against Risconi, a local team in Brunico city. Al Ain will then take on Palermo on July 16.

Commenting on last week's draw for the UAE's domestic events, Al Shabani said Al Ain were in a tough group in the Etisalat Cup.

They were placed alongside UAE champions Al Jazira, arch rivals Al Wahda and Diego Maradona's Al Wasl.

"We also face some very stiff opposition early in the league as we meet Al Nasr in the opening match and then the very second match is the Derby against Al Wahda in Abu Dhabi," he said.

Foreigners released

Al Ain released all three of their foreign players who played for them last season — Brahima Keita, Elias Ribeiro and Valentin Badea — and have signed up AEK Athens' former Argentine youth international Ignacio Scocco and Romanian Mirel Radoi from Al Hilal.

Al Shabani said Scocco, who has signed a two-year deal with the nine-time UAE club champions, will join the camp on Wednesday, while Radoi will join in Austria.

Al Ain will complete their training by the end of July and during the latter half of the month of Ramadan will play in a tournament alongside Saudi Arabia's Al Shabab, Egypt's Al Ahly and a club each from Morocco and Sudan.

After the Ramadan holidays, Al Ain club will complete their preparation with a week-long camp in Qatar where they will face two Qatari clubs and then return for the start of action in the domestic events.

According to Al Shabani, Hamad Al Merri, Mohammad Abdul Rahman and Haddaf Al Ameri will leave the Al Ain camp to join the UAE Olympic team.

Goalkeeping course

Young goalkeepers in the UAE have a unique chance to master some of the skills that made Edwin Van der Sar one of the world's best goalkeepers and a true Manchester United legend.

The first goalkeeping programme, to be run in the capital, gets under way at the Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS) on Sunday. For UAE youngsters it's a perfect opportunity to discover the techniques that brought Van der Sar a string of top awards, including Best European Goalkeeper four times.

Those enrolling for the four-day goalkeeping course, the latest in a series of weekly summer programmes from MUSS, will be in the safe hands of Adam Jones, the co-ordinator of the Goalkeeping Residential Course at MUSS in the United Kingdom. Jones, a Uefa qualified goalkeeping coach with a BSc in Science and Football, will focus on the skills and techniques that made Van der Sar such a crucial member of the United team.

The course will be based inside the air-conditioned Dome@Rawdhat on Airport Road, which was built by MUSS partners Reem Investments.

Van der Sar helped United to four English Premier League titles, as well as the Champions League in 2008, and his brilliance saw him establish a number of records. In the 2008-09 Premier League season he set a world record by keeping a clean sheet for 1,311 minutes of league football. When United lifted the Premier League trophy at the end of the 2010-11 season he became the oldest player, at 40 years and 205 days, to win the title, before retiring soon afterwards.