ABU DHABI // What can a coach do when he is told to keep his hands off the nation's best young players and some others who turn out for a team preparing for the Club World Cup?
Srecko Katanec, the national team coach, is faced with such a dilemma as he prepares for the Gulf Cup in Yemen from November 22 to December 4.
The Slovenian has named a 22-man squad, leaving out several first-team players who would most likely have made the starting XI, for the friendlies with Chile on Saturday and Angola three days later, both at the Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
"I don't think about those who are not available for the senior team, but this provides an opportunity for others to get into the squad," Katanec said in a pre-match press conference at the Zayed Sports City yesterday.
"This is the best I could pick and it will be the squad we may have to move on with for the Gulf Cup. I will try to make some new combinations at the back, and some in the middle. I have been told players from both the youth team and Al Wahda will not be available, so I have picked the best available team for now."
The country's football administrators have made qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics their main objective, depriving the senior national team of the best Under 23 players.
The Football Association had also announced Katanec will be unable to select players from Wahda, the Pro League champions, giving them the best possible chance to impress at the Club World Cup in the capital in December.
Katanec, however, has selected Ismail Matar, Mohammed al Shehhi, Mahmoud Khamis and Fahed Masoud from Wahda for the friendlies, but al Shehhi has pulled out with an ankle injury.
"I had no choice when selecting a few players from Wahda because they are important in my team. For the time being, I couldn't find any replacements. "It is not easy to have a new line up in a short time. But hopefully I will have more time when we go into the final camp before the Gulf Cup."
Katanec is expecting a strong match against a team rated 10th in the Fifa world rankings. But Chile arrive without many of the players who progressed to the last 16 of the World Cup in South Africa, eventually losing 3-0 to Brazil.
"I have seen the list and it's not the same team side that played in the World Cup." said Katanec. "I really don't know what type of team that we are going to face, but whoever is in the national team must be very good."
One of the players Katanec knows well is Pedro Morales, the 25-year-old midfielder, who plays for Dynamo Zagreb, the Croatian club. "I have seen Morales play for Dynamo Zagreb and I'm familiar with a few names, but most of them are an unknown quantity for me.
"I like to play stronger opposition to know how good we are against stronger opponents. It is not like playing against teams from the same region. "On paper, both Chile and Angola, whom we play on Tuesday, are very strong and that's the kind of opposition I want to test my players with."
Marcelo Beilsa, the Chile coach, insisted his players have arrived on their first trip to the capital well prepared. "It is normal that we evaluate the players and the team's performances after a World Cup, and that's one of the reasons why we haven't come with a full squad," said the Argentine. "But whoever we have selected for this game are good enough to be in the national team and we are serious about this game."
Carlos Villanueva, the Al Shabab midfielder, joins the squad. Beilsa said Villanueva's experience in the Pro League mattered little on his selection.
"He was already in Dubai and was available, so we decided to include him, but not because of his local experience," said Bielsa. "And because we had Morales and Villanueva, there was no need to bring in Jorge Valdivia [who played for Al Ain for two seasons]."
apassela@thenational.ae
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Dolittle
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen
One-and-a-half out of five stars
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group C
Liverpool v Napoli, midnight
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
The team
Photographer: Mateusz Stefanowski at Art Factory
Videographer: Jear Valasquez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Model: Randa at Art Factory Videographer’s assistant: Zanong Magat
Photographer’s assistant: Sophia Shlykova
With thanks to Jubail Mangrove Park, Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
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- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
- Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
- Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
- Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
- Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
- Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
If you go...
Fly from Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Chiang Mai in Thailand, via Bangkok, before taking a five-hour bus ride across the Laos border to Huay Xai. The land border crossing at Huay Xai is a well-trodden route, meaning entry is swift, though travellers should be aware of visa requirements for both countries.
Flights from Dubai start at Dh4,000 return with Emirates, while Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi start at Dh2,000. Local buses can be booked in Chiang Mai from around Dh50
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
MATCH INFO
Everton 0
Manchester City 2 (Laporte 45 2', Jesus 90 7')
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
