Walter Zenga steers Al Nasr to success

Abu Dhabi: Italian Walter Zenga, the head coach of Al Nasr, is the man of the moment.

He succeeded in steering Al Nasr from the bottom place in the start of the Etisalat Pro League to second place, achieving what all the other teams failed to do, beating leaders Al Ain 2-0 late on Monday to stop them from widening the gap between them. 

Zenga, whose job was under doubt at the start of the campaign, succeeded in improving his team to become a winning side - applying simple but effective strategy: defend solidly, know the weak points of your opponents and hit hard and keep away from fancy unpractical football. 

While Al Ain met their first defeat of the season, they still deserve credit for their own entertaining brand of football and their coach, Cosmin and his players might find an excuse that the Al Nasr's first goal by Mark Bresciano came from a seemingly offside position of Diane whose pass found the Australian dynamic midfielder inside the box to score with a double lightening-fast touch and shot even before the ball touched the ground. 

The management of Al Nasr club deserve praise for their patience towards Zenga which paid preciously as they see their team pole vault over the other teams to take the second place with only three points away from the top seat which is occupied by Al Ain (27) and one point more than reigning champions Al Jazira in third place. 

Al Ahli, Ajma, Al Wasl and Emirates are the other biggest winners of the week, beating Al Jazira, Bani Yas, Sharjah and Dubai, respectively while Al Wahda and Al Shabab have failed to capitalize on the defeat of Al Jazira to take second place and settled for a goalless tie. 

Sharjah, in particular, have failed once again to defend their lead and squandered a golden chance to win a single point as their top striker Marcelo failed to convert correctly from the penalty spot. It was the same fate of Al Jazira with their midfielder Delgado squandering a spot kick and both teams ended losing the points. The league will stop till February 8 to allow the senior and Olympic teams to play friendly and official matches. 

Meanwhile, Asamoah Gyan of Al Ain, who was away from his team since the ninth week, still leads the scorers' list with 10 goals followed by Ricardo Oliveira of Al Jazira (nine). Juan Maneul Olivera of Al Wasl, Marcelo of Sharjah and Bare of Al Jazira have eight goals each - followed by Ibrahima Toure of Ajman who left for France to play with Monaco, Edinho of Sharjah and Mark Bresciano of Al Nasr with seven goals each. Last season's top scorer, Andre Senghor of Bani Yas, Scocco of Al Ain, Fernando Baiano of Al Wahda and Ciel of Al Shabab have scored six goals each.