UAE U-23 lacked cohesion: Coach
abu dhabi — UAE coach Hassan Al Abdouli said lack of cohesion among players marred a good opportunity for a direct entry into the AFC U-23 Championship to be held in China next year.
In the final and deciding Group D encounter, the UAE lost 2-0 to Uzbekistan.
Al Abdouli said Uzbekistan had an advantage of training together for a long time and playing more friendlies.
“As the Uzbek coach stated at the beginning of this tournament as well, his side had played 20 friendlies together and they have been together as the same side for two years, whereas we have just got together in the last 37 days,” Al Abdouli said after the match in Al Ain.
He noted three matches in five days had taken a toll on the team.
“From the second match (against Nepal on Monday) we were exhausted but we don’t have any excuses for what happened today (Wednesday).”
The young side, having been together for a few weeks, did put a solid show in previous matches but at the end ran out of gas.
“In the first half we didn’t play offensively enough, so we tried to change our style in the second half, indeed Uzbekistan did that better and we didn’t play as we planned to. We made technical mistakes and our physical fitness levels were at a minimum because we were exhausted after having already played two games that was clear from the beginning.”
The UAE are still in with a slim chance as one of five or six best runners-up with other group matches to be played in next two days. The slots will also depend on where hosts China finish in their group. If China top their group or are among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up also qualifies for the Championship.