Abu Dhabi
teammelli.com reprts.
Team Melli continued training for the upcoming match against Vietnam. On Thursday, the designated training facility for Team Melli was the cricket ground which is not far from the main stadium in Abu Dhabi and the team hotel.
The next training session on Friday will be held at the match venue, Al Neheyan stadium.
As the media is only allowed 15 minutes to observe the training, most of this time is spent on warm up and muscle stretching exercises. No tactical work is carried out in presence of the media.
Injury situation
Alireza Jahanbakhsh was the only concern for the team, however, he has trained fully and expected to be ready for Vietnam match. Queiroz might opt to start him on the bench on Saturday.
The players are following their coach on their media statements on the matches and sticking with the party line. Nobody is taking about finals or lifting the trophy at this moment while the team only focuses on the next match.
The pre match press conference for the Vietnam match will be carried out in the Al Neheyan Stadium followed by the last training session before the Saturday match.
General view
This edition of Asian Cup is the closest in history despite the two large results by Iran and Saudi Arabia. Less known teams are flexing their muscles and giving it all. Turkmenistan was a real match for the mighty Japanese and even led the 4 times champions 1 – 0 at half time from a ferocious long-range shot, however, individual mistakes and lack of concentration by the Turkmen defense allowed Japan to come back from behind in the Second half which ended 3-2.
Jordan is the first team to qualify for round 16. After they rattled Australia in their first match, Jordan continued its impressive performance defeating Syria 2-0 in Thursday`s match. That result will qualify Jordan for round 16 regardless of their last match.
The highlight of Thursday was the match between host UAE and India.
India moving the ball so easily round the pitch and looked the more likely team to score. However, they missed several opportunities one of which ricocheted off the bar. UAE looked nervous, perhaps surprised by the Indians coming at them rather than being on the defensive. if it was not for the UAE keeper who came to the aid of the team, the 1st half would have been embarrassing for the host if Team India was more clinical in finishing.
As India was much the better team, but failed to take their chances, the unwritten law prevailed in the 2nd half. Against the run of play UAE scored. Speculative shoot by Khalfan Mubarak passes across India goalie.and into the net.
Late in the game, a long ball to Mabkhoot, who cleverly controlled the ball and dribbled his marker , ended up in the net to confirm UAE`s first win.