UAE play Australia in Olympics qualifiers

The UAE football team take their first serious step to achieve their Olympics dream when they face Australia at 2:30pm today for a spot in the 2012 London Games. The UAE are in Asian Group B which also features Uzbekistan and Iraq who will face each other today. The team that win the group will secure a berth in the London Games next summer. A total of 12 teams have reached this stage of the Asian qualifiers. They are divided into three groups, with the winners of each group qualifying for the London Games, while the best second-placed teams from the three groups will play one centralised round robin tournament and the winner will contest the play-off match with a team from Africa. The UAE have never played in the Olympic Games but with this generation of players, the dream seems quite realistic. The talented UAE team, coached by Mahdi Ali, have achieved many regional, continental and international victories in the past few years. So far they have won the Asian Youth Championship in 2008, eighth place finish in the Fifa World Youth Cup in 2009, runners-up in the 2010 Asian Games in China and winners of the GCC Under-23 Championship in 2010 and finishing second this year. They have also defeated Australia twice in some of these tournaments. Ali was keen to keep all the names that started the team four years ago as juniors and has added those who are really gifted and could add to the team. Ali will surely miss the services of his captain and central defender Hamdan Al Kamali due to injury. The players are determined to start the campaign on a positive note, especially after the disappointment of the senior team in the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup. Team composition Midifielders Theyab Awanah and Rashid Eisa have both recovered from their injuries and are expected to feature in the match today alongside Amer Abdul Rahman and Mohammad Fawzi, the stand-in captain. While Ahmad Mahmoud will feature in goal with Mohammad Ahmad, Ali Al Ameri, Abdul Aziz Haikal and Abdul Aziz Sangoor in defence while Ahmad Khalil and either Ahmad Ali, Ali Mabkhoot or Mohammad Abdul Rahman will lead the attack. "It is important for us to have a good start to our campaign." Ali said yesterday. "We know the strength of the Australian team, but I have great confidence in my players and I do believe that if they bring out their best, they will emerge as winners."