Moataz Al Shami (Abu Dhabi)
The technical staff of our national football team, led by the Portuguese Paulo Bento, asked the players who joined the “White” camp to show a high fighting spirit and confidence, and to adhere to technical instructions and a spirit of discipline, whether tactical or technical.
Pinto stressed the importance of all players seizing the opportunity given to them to enter the national team squad, especially the new faces who were called up to rely on them in the next stage of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
Our national team will meet Qatar next Thursday, at the beginning of its journey in the third stage of the qualifiers, and Pinto decided to postpone the travel date for the mission to Wednesday morning, so that the “Whites” will perform their final training session on the night of the match, and return to Abu Dhabi immediately after, to complete the camp, before heading to Al Ain on September 9, to play the second match in the qualifiers against Iran on September 10, and this comes due to the lack of time and the proximity of the qualifiers matches.
The national team camp witnessed the players undergoing light training to “loosen their muscles” at the New York University stadium in Abu Dhabi, after the players included in the list joined, as the internationals played strong matches in the “second round” of the “ADNOC Professional League” during the past two days.
The technical staff realizes that the most prominent challenge facing the national team in the third stage of the qualifiers is the need for the team to prepare strongly to play at a high level against the teams nominated to qualify for the World Cup.
According to the qualifying system, the first and second teams in each group qualify directly to the finals, reserving 6 tickets for the “yellow continent” from the three groups, while the teams ranked third and fourth in each group continue the fourth stage qualifiers to compete for two tickets.
The technical staff raises the slogan of winning all matches, regardless of the strength of the competitor, which requires the readiness of all the elements that are relied upon due to the lack of time to prepare for the friendly matches, as the team can only get 4 or 5 days before the first qualifying match in each gathering due to the pressure of the “calendar”, which prompted Pinto to rely on the league to prepare the players and raise their technical capabilities.
Bento relies on the experienced players in the national team roster, especially some names who have come to understand the technical staff’s playing style and what is required on the field during matches, most notably Khalid Issa, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalid Al Hashemi Zayed Sultan, Abdullah Idris, Ali Saleh, Lima, Tahnoon Al Zaabi, Caio Canedo, and Sultan Adel.
Bento announced 30 players, including 3 new players born in the country, and professionals in clubs in England and France. The list included Khalid Issa, Khalid Tawhid, Ali Khatif, and Adly Mohammed, as goalkeepers, and Khalid Al Hashemi, Mohammed Al Attas, Kwame, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khamis Al Mansouri, Zayed Sultan, Khaled Al Dhanhani, Abdullah Idris, and Abdulrahman Saleh as defenders, and Ali Salmeen, Yahya Nader, Mohammed Abbas, Mackenzie Hunt, Majed Rashid, Abdullah Hamad, Tahnoon Al Zaabi, Essam Fayez, Yahya Al Ghassani, Harb Abdullah, Ali Saleh, Fahad Badr, and Fabio Lima as midfielders, and Sultan Adel, Junior Ndaye, Caio Canedo, and Mohammed Juma as attackers.
It is expected that Pinto will give the opportunity to the trio Mackenzie Hunt and Junior Nday, in addition to Adly Mohamed, due to the readiness of Khaled Eissa to occupy the position of the national team’s main goalkeeper.
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