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Prime VIP
Abu Dhabi The UAE national team yesterday left for China for a short training camp before travelling to Seoul to face South Korea in the Asian qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Caretaker coach Dr Abdullah Misfir led the team last week for the first time since he was appointed to replace Srecko Katanec last month.
The team was gathered in Al Ain for a week-long domestic training camp aimed to increase the physical fitness of the players who lost their first two matches in Group B against Kuwait and Lebanon, giving them little hope of qualification for the final round of the qualifiers.
Midfielder Amer Abdul Rahman has not joined the team for personal reasons relating to the death of Bani Yas teammate Diab Awana in a car accident last week. Awana was a recent member of both the Olympic and national team squads.
Awana's dream
"We will do our best in the remaining matches of the qualifiers to realise the dream of Diab," Hamdan Al Kamali, the defender and close friend of Awana, said yesterday.
"He was always talking about playing in the finals of the World Cup but he left us too soon before achieving his dream."
Misfir said his main worry as he tries to turn around the fortunes of the team was the fitness levels of the players.
"We have some very gifted players but their physical fitness is not at the standard I want," he said.
"We will work on that during the coming few days and I do hope that by the time of the official match they will be match-fit bearing in mind that we will play against the strongest team in the group.
"Our chances are slim but they are still there and we will go for that."
The UAE will face China in a friendly match on October 6 before leaving the next day for Seoul, where they face the South Koreans on October 11.
UAE squad: Ahmad Khalil, Esmail Al Hammadi, Juma Abdullah, Khalid Sabeel, Abdulla Moussa, Subait Khater, Ahmad Juma, Khalid Eisa, Waleed Abbass, Mohammad Ahmad, Ali Al Waheebi, Faris Juma, Adil Al Hosani, Hamdan Al Kamali, Eisa Ahmad, Mahmoud Khamis, Esmail Mattar, Khalid Jalal, Mohammad Al Shehhi, Bashir Saeed, Majid Nasser, Ali Abbas, Yousuf Jaber and Mohammad Fawzi.
