Saqr satisfied with soccer squad's progress

The UAE national football team coach, Abdullah Saqr, said that he is satisfied with the UAE performance in their first warm up matches against Galatasaray of Turkey and Auxerre of France played on Sunday at Lausanne during the team's training camp in Switzerland.

The team is preparing for the second round of their World Cup qualifiers which start on August 17 when the UAE host Uzbekistan in Abu Dhabi.

Good experiment
"As a beginning it was a good experiment due to the short period of play for preparations which began ten days ago," said Abdullah Saqr told GN on phone from Switzerland.
Saqr said that the team played better in the first 45 minutes against Galatasaray. "We used different tactics in both the matches to study the players and their understanding of what was required of them during the matches.

"In the opening 45 minutes against the Turkish club, I played with Saeed Juma as the goalkeeper, Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, Jalil Abdul Rahman, Fahd Ali in the defence. Humaid Fakher and Gharib Hareb started as wingbacks. Abdul Salam Juam, Abdul Rahim Juma, Subait Khater - who scored the only goal - in midfield. Mohammed Omer and Qazim Ali in front."

The UAE coach said that he made some changes in the second 45 minutes against Auxerre. "In the second half, I made eight changes. Juma Rashid instead of Saeed Juma as goalkeeper, Bakhit Saad, Haydar Allo Ali, Mohammed Ibrahim in midfield in place of Subait Khater, Abdul Rahim and Abdul Salam. Also Mohamed Qassim in place of Fahd Ali and Al Anbari instead of Gharib Hareb. The frontliners also were changed, Faisal Khalil and Salim Saad came in place of Qazim and Omer."

The UAE coach said that the team benefited from the matches. "We benefited from the two games. The best thing was that there were no injuries."

Going smoothly
Saqr said that everything was going smoothly in the training camp in Switzerland. "We began rigorous training sessions the next day on our arrival to Montana. Fitness training sessions were done to recapture the players fitness following the long rest they got after the season ended."

The UAE coach said that the UAE's third match will be tomorrow against Docla Prague of the Czech Republic. "It will be our last match in Switzerland. We will move on Thursday to Saint Etienne in France to conduct the second period of the training camp."

Saqr claimed that the warm-up matches in France are not yet agreed upon. "We will play three matches during our stay in France on July 15, 20 and 24.

The Bahrain match which was scheduled to be on July 20 had not yet been confirmed, while Saint Etienne declined to play against us. The third match against Lyon is yet to be confirmed.

The Lyon senior team are holding a four-day training camp in the same hotel in which we are staying in Montana. They claimed that they have no idea about a match against UAE national team on July 15 in France. We heard that their youth team would meet us which we rejected because we want to play strong matches against senior teams and not youth," Saqr said.

The UAE coach said that Zuhair Bakhit is still under fitness training. "Zuhair stayed a long time away from football, but he is doing well. I think he will be able to play matches during the France training camp."

Saqr added that Mohammed Ali is fit and ready to play. "I will give Mohammed Ali a chance to play in tomorrow's match against Docla Prague. He recaptured his fitness quicker than Zuhair, because he didn't take such a long break from football."

Saqr said that Yasir Salim who came with an injury to Switzerland is now fit.

"Yasir suffered a strain, but now he has recovered and fit to play tomorrow. Fahd Masood needs time to recover. He will start training in France. We are not in a hurry to play him," Saqr said.