Sunday, June 11, 2017
BANGKOK, THAILAND // Two days out from Edgardo Bauza’s competitive debut with the UAE and all seems well in the camp.
The players were put through their paces at their academy base in Bangkok on Sunday night, training ramped up that little bit more, players increasingly concentrated, the drills carried out with greater gusto.
Tuesday’s decisive World Cup qualifier against Thailand has obviously focused the mind, the final of three fixtures on what the UAE hope will form the road to Russia. The team has had a limited time to get to know their new manager, but it appears Bauza is getting his message across.
In the sticky Thai heat, and thankfully spared the flash downpour of the previous evening, the Argentine working intensely on the side’s defence while encouraging creative fulcrum Omar Abdulrahman to express himself further forward. The Asian player of the year stopped for some media work afterwards, happy to relay that Bauza has settled quickly and settled well.
And anyway, as Abdulrahman imparted, this team has been together in some guise dating back almost a decade, so having a new man setting tactics and giving orders – through a translator, of course – should not provide too much of a disruption.
It is different to Mahdi Ali, but the players are professional enough to understand what is at stake.
Granted, the UAE take on Group B’s bottom side, but there is a pressure to close the gap on the three teams above them and blocking the way to the World Cup, on recovering from the double defeat to Japan and Australia last time out. Make no mistake, the UAE have to win on Tuesday.
There appears no need to underline that, though. Two days out from Bauza’s big bow, the camp is coping just fine.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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