Bigger goals within reach for UAE

Mahdi Ali, the UAE's football coach, had no hesitation in predicting that there were better performances to come from his team after they assured themselves of a place in the third stage of the Asian qualifiers for the 2012 London Olympic Games late on Thursday. "It has been a long and tiring season for our players and I am happy we were able to advance to the third stage of the qualifiers," Ali told Gulf News after the UAE held North Korea 1-1 in Al Ain to advance 2-1 on aggregate. "The heat and humidity was a smaller factor when one considered that this bunch of players have hardly had enough rest during the past nine months," the UAE coach added. The UAE held a slight edge following their 1-0 win in Pyongyang earlier this month and that advantage proved handy for the home side following the 1-1 result on Thursday. Pak Kwang put the North Koreans in the lead, thanks to some shoddy marking at the second post when he headed in a cross from the left on the 19th minute. But skipper Hamdan Al Kamali coolly slotted home a penalty following a questionable decision from the referee for a foul on substitute Haboosh Saleh in the 34th minute. "It was important for us to fight the way we did. We should have scored early and that could have eased a lot of pressure from us. But North Korea scored and then it was important for this team to show their true character," Ali said. Busy schedule UAE players completed their league engagements earlier this month and then got together for the preparatory camp for the Olympic qualifiers. A big positive for the team was the silver medal at the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China. "So it has been tiring for my players and I want to thank them all for such a fine effort," Ali said. The third round of competition will feature 12 teams who will be divided into three groups of four. At the end of home-and-away matches to be held from September 21 to March 14, the three group winners will advance directly to London 2012, while the three runners-up in the group will play at a neutral venue from March 25-29 to decide one winner who will be involved in a play-off against the fourth-best African team. From gulfnews.