4-Nation Tourney: UAE leaves for Ghana

Ghana tournament vital for World Cup hopes, says Metsu

Dubai: The UAE national football team left yesterday for Ghana to participate in an international friendly tournament which will be held in Accra from November 18 to 21 with Togo, Benin, UAE and hosts Ghana also taking part.
Bruno Metsu, the UAE coach, said playing in such a competitive tournament is very important for the UAE players.
"After we succeeded in qualifying for the World Cup qualifiers third round, we have to play strong matches to gain experience.
Commitments
"I think playing against teams like Ghana and Togo, who played in the World cup finals last year, will give our young players the experience they need before the coming commitments," said Metsu before leaving yesterday for Accra.
The international tournament in Accra will be played on a knock-out system. UAE meet Ghana on the 18th at 9pm UAE time and on the same day Togo play against Benin at 7pm. The winners meet in the final on the 21st, while the losers play-off to decide third place.
For the first time in the UAE's soccer history, two senior national teams are playing at the same time in different places. The UAE seniors will be in Ghana while the B team are taking part in the Pan-Arab Games in Egypt.
The UAE team in Ghana will be without gifted striker Esmail Mattar, Abdul Rahim Juma and Saif Mohammad who are all injured.
Squad: Walid Salim, Esmail Rabea, Mohammad Qasim, Mussa Hattab, Rashid Abdul Rahman, Bashir Saeed, Humaid Fakhir, Eisa Ahmad, Saleh Obaid, Yousuf Jaber, Amir Mubarak, Subait Khater, Nawaf Mubarak, Abdullah Al Noubi, Ahmad Dada, Ali Al Wehaibi, Mohammd Al Shehi, Faisal Khalil, Mahmoud Khamis, Ali Abbas, Salim Sa ad.