Mahdi Ali's UAE football stars back on stage after long break

Preparations for October's Fifa U17 World Cup taking place in the UAE have recently overshadowed the little matter of the senior side's splendid progress over the past year. But what, exactly, have Mahdi Ali 's men been up to for the past several months? When the UAE take on Trinidad & Tobago on Thursday, it will have been 167 days – more than five months – since they last played an international of any type, competitive or friendly. An eternity, taking into account international football's sporadic nature. The match is part of the inaugural OSN Cup, and kicks off at the King Fahd International Stadium, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Later Thursday night, the home country takes on New Zealand at the same venue. The winning teams from Thursday's matches meet in the final on Monday night. The losers face off in the third-place game, earlier on Monday. For UAE fans, 2013 has seen their team's best sequence of results in years, and they will be keen to see the Whites return to action. Since the UAE defeated Uzbekistan in March, two international breaks have appeared on the calendar – not to mention the whole summer – in which Mahdi Ali's troops have been on leave. In one unfortunate aspect, this prolonged period of inaction was unavoidable – the UAE were knocked out of the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign almost three years ago. By early June, when many countries played two qualifiers for Brazil 2014, the UAE's finest were putting their feet up for the summer. The lack of fixtures during that time was not due to an oversight by the UAE Football Association, nor difficulties in finding friendly opponents. The UAE's international schedule had been finalised more than five months ago. In April, Mahdi Ali confirmed that the next time the UAE took to the field would be in a "series of friendlies in Saudi Arabia". He also reiterated that his main target was qualification to the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. "I hope, first of all, to qualify, and it's our dream to be one of the four top teams" in the competition, he said. "We are doing very well in the qualifiers. We played in Vietnam and Uzbekistan here and we won both games, and we are in a good position now." There is always the danger that the long lay-off since those two qualifiers could damage the momentum that the UAE built up with the Gulf Cup championship in January. The triumph in Bahrain seemed to lift the morale of a nation and was perfect preparation for the start of the AFC qualifying campaign. The qualifiers, 2-1 wins in Vietnam and at home to Uzbekistan, left the UAE sitting comfortably at the top of Group E with a maximum of six points. Hong Kong are second with four. The subsequent break from action may puzzle some, but Mahdi Ali is nothing if not obsessive about preparation, as we learned during the successful qualifying campaign for the 2012 London Olympics . Nothing is left to chance. The UAE coach might have felt that two friendlies at the end of a long season would provide nothing that he didn't already know about his players. Also, the new Arabian Gulf League season does not kick off until September 14, later than most countries. The August international week would have come too early for the Emirati players, in terms of fitness, with most barely having rejoined their clubs after the summer break. The timing of the OSN Cup could be just right to get the squad back in the groove for the serious business ahead. Of course, Mahdi Ali will be keen to add the OSN Cup to his growing list of achievements but, privately, he will only have one date in mind – October 15, when his team face Hong Kong at Mong Kok Stadium. A positive result there could well see the UAE qualify to the finals in the return match on November 15 at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. But first, a chance for viewers to see Omar Abdulrahman and co ease their way back into action, on Thursday night and on Monday. After that, attention will return to the qualifiers for Australia 2015 that wrap up March 5 of next year. Mahdi Ali will be hoping that the summer holiday his players have just enjoyed will be their longest time off for some time to come. Follow us

Mahdi Ali's UAE football stars back on stage after long break

When the UAE take on Trinidad & Tobago, it will have been 167 days – more than five months – since they last played an international of any type.