Cosmin Olaroiu says the UAE national team want to deliver qualification for the World Cup as a gift for “a nation that deserves it”.
Fourteen years after he first arrived in the club game as coach of Al Ain, the Romanian has taken charge of the national side with the ultimate prize at stake.
They face Uzbekistan in Abu Dhabi on Thursday evening knowing direct qualification to the 2026 World Cup is possible, even if it is hanging by a thread.
If the home team can beat the second-placed Uzbeks at Al Nahyan Stadium, they will move to within a point of them in the group.
They would then need to better whatever result the Uzbeks achieve against Qatar on Tuesday in their own game in Kyrgyzstan to book their ticket to the United States, Canada and Mexico. Coincidentally, Tuesday is also Olaroiu’s birthday.
Even though he has been in situ in his new role for little more than a week, optimism has been flooding through the game here since he landed the role.
His appointment has infused people with the belief qualification can be achieved without resorting to a repechage play-off in October.
It is the 'Olaroiu effect' in motion, but the man himself says only a group effort will bring about success.
“It’s not about me,” Olaroiu said. “I am a small part of this team. I am here to help, and give my support and experience to transfer to the players to reach their dream.
“It is about this group of players. They have the biggest opportunity at this moment that most of them will have in their careers: to participate in a World Cup.
“They should understand this and be very motivated to reach their dream, and the dream of a nation that deserves to get this. For us, this is a big responsibility.”
Given how much rests on the game against the Uzbeks, Olaroiu has a tricky balance to strike.
He acknowledged his coaching staff have had to rein back the players at points over the past week, so enthusiastic have they been. Even that, though, he regards as positive.
“Sometimes they overload themselves and we have to tell them to calm down a little bit, and this is a good sign that they want it,” Olaroiu said. “This is the way we should approach the game.”
Olaroiu accepts the challenge facing his side is a sizeable one against an Uzbek side which he terms “one of the biggest teams in Asia”. But he enjoys it that way, he said.
“In my career I have been involved in games against lots of teams who are bigger than us,” the UAE coach said.
“Always, we have one chance, and I will fight for the chance. We have to do this, and tomorrow is our first chance to do this.”
If Olaroiu is charged with readying the players for the challenge ahead, then he has an able captain on the field to help carry out the mission.
Khalid Essa, the goalkeeper, is almost as adept at delivering a message as his new coach. The Al Ain No 1 said he feels privileged to finally work with Olaroiu.
“I have spent 15 years representing the clubs I have played for and the national team,” Essa said. “Through these years, I can say I am very proud and lucky that, before I retire, I have played under the guidance of this coach.
“He is a coach who can understand the players inside and outside the pitch. He can extract the maximum from the players. He has leadership characteristics, and knows the players who are here more than any other coach.”
Essa, too, emphasised the fact success will only come via a communal effort.
“We are much closer to the World Cup than we have ever been, and we believe in this moment,” Essa said.
“It will be a joint effort between the players, the management, the federation, the fans, and the entire nation.
“If we continue in this way, we can achieve big things. Until this point we have been performing well, but luck wasn’t on our side, fate wasn’t on our side.
“We don’t know what the result will be tomorrow, but we will put in all our efforts, and we are expecting a positive atmosphere. We are seeing that already.
“We are all sailing the same ship here. We all want to qualify for the World Cup. The entire country. To do that, for the next five days we all need to share in the joint effort.”
Brief scores:
Toss: Kerala Knights, opted to fielf
Pakhtoons 109-5 (10 ov)
Fletcher 32; Lamichhane 3-17
Kerala Knights 110-2 (7.5 ov)
Morgan 46 not out, Stirling 40
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
On Instagram: @WithHopeUAE
Although social media can be harmful to our mental health, paradoxically, one of the antidotes comes with the many social-media accounts devoted to normalising mental-health struggles. With Hope UAE is one of them.
The group, which has about 3,600 followers, was started three years ago by five Emirati women to address the stigma surrounding the subject. Via Instagram, the group recently began featuring personal accounts by Emiratis. The posts are written under the hashtag #mymindmatters, along with a black-and-white photo of the subject holding the group’s signature red balloon.
“Depression is ugly,” says one of the users, Amani. “It paints everything around me and everything in me.”
Saaed, meanwhile, faces the daunting task of caring for four family members with psychological disorders. “I’ve had no support and no resources here to help me,” he says. “It has been, and still is, a one-man battle against the demons of fractured minds.”
In addition to With Hope UAE’s frank social-media presence, the group holds talks and workshops in Dubai. “Change takes time,” Reem Al Ali, vice chairman and a founding member of With Hope UAE, told The National earlier this year. “It won’t happen overnight, and it will take persistent and passionate people to bring about this change.”
Company%C2%A0profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHayvn%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EChristopher%20Flinos%2C%20Ahmed%20Ismail%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efinancial%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eundisclosed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESize%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2044%20employees%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eseries%20B%20in%20the%20second%20half%20of%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHilbert%20Capital%2C%20Red%20Acre%20Ventures%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
'The Batman'
Stars:Robert Pattinson
Director:Matt Reeves
Rating: 5/5
