Al Faisal teams up with Austria’s Zele Racing in Germany
MUSCAT: Oman head coach Pim Verbeek said the door is open to junior players for a place in the national squad.
“The door is still open to call and try new players and I will travel to China by myself to watch the U-23 national team in order to hunt new talents,” the Dutchman told Oman Daily Observer after Oman national team thrashed Maldives 5-0 in the Asian Cup qualifier on Tuesday at the Sultan Qaboos Sport Complex.
“I am pleased with the performance of the team in general compared with what we did in Afghanistan friendly.”
“This is how you can benefit from the friendly games to improve the team for the official games.”
“I am not yet settled with the final squad and the upcoming U-23 Asian Cup to be held in China in January 2018 will be a very important opportunity for us to spot the new talents. I will go to watch the competition if I do not have any commitments with the senior team,’’ Verbeek said.
Oman were less impressive in the first half of the game, scoring only one goal by Maldives’ defender (own goal), before they improved their style of play to score four goals in the second half.
In the post-match press conference, Verbeek said: “We were supposed to score about three goals in the first half, but we did only once. I spoke to my men in the half-time that we need only to concentrate on converting chances to goals and we made it in the second half.’’
Verbeek continued playing with the same formation (4-4-2) in the second half but made three changes, with Salah al Yahyae, Said al Ruzaiqi and Sami al Hasni replacing Ali al Busidy, Khalid al Hajri and Mohsen al Gassani. The changes enhanced the quality of the attacking side which let them to score four goals.
In the match, Maldives defenders scored two own goals, while Salah al Yahyae made it three by scoring a spectacular goal. Jamil al Yahmedi scored the fourth before the substitute Sami al Hasini marked his name with the fifth goal.
The victory put the Red Warriors in second place of Group D with 6 points, behind the leaders Palestine who have now 9 points after beating Bhutan 2-0 away. NURBURGRING, Germany: With over six weeks before the final two rounds of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup in Mexico City, Oman’s Al Faisal al Zubair has decided to use the time constructively and has taken the decision to tackle the final three double-header rounds of the 2017 Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, starting with a race meeting at the 3.629km Nürburgring Sprint circuit this weekend (September 9-10).
Now in its 32nd season, the German one-make series is one of the most prestigious in the world and second only to the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup for enthusiasts of the German sports car marque. The standard of competition is very high.
This year’s series began at Hockenheim in May and finishes at the same circuit. Al Zubair has already missed other rounds at Eurospeedway Lausitz, Spielberg, the Norisring and the legendary Nürburgring GP Circuit and has entered this weekend’s race and subsequent rounds at the Sachsenring (September 16-17) and Hockenheim (October 14-15) to further his experience and keep him in a positive frame of mind before the Mexican finale at the end of October.
This year’s Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup has developed into a two-horse race between Al Zubair’s Lechner Racing team-mate Michael Ammermüller and Dennis Olsen. The duo have also been two of the men to beat at the previous rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany as well and claimed two pole positions apiece, although Olsen has won five of the eight races with the other three wins falling to Christian Engelhart, Larry Ten Voorde and Nick Yelloly.
Al Zubair teams up with the Austrian racing outfit Zele Racing for his first foray into German Porsche racing. The team was founded in 2001 by Hermann and Michael Zele and also looks after Austrian driver Philipp Sagar, Slovakian rookie Richard Gonda and Luxembourg’s Dylan Pereira.
“We decided to take part in the three German rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany in the gap between the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup races in Monza and Mexico,” said FZ Racing’s Al Faisal. “I am going to try and achieve the best result I can.
“Monza was really good for me and much better than the previous weekend in Spa. We showed our pace and achieved a good result. I am hoping to do the same in the German Porsche Carrera Cup. It will not be easy with my lack of experience at the circuit, but I am excited at the challenge and confident that we can do well.”
Teams will be permitted to carry out practice on the circuit for one hour from 13.10hrs on Friday afternoon (September 8). The qualifying session gets underway on Saturday morning at 11.15hrs and the first of the two races takes centre stage from 17.30hrs (19.30hrs — Oman time). The second of the weekend’s two races fires into life at 11.40hrs (13.40hrs — Oman time) on Sunday (September 10).