Dubai: With the call-up of UAE national team players weakening clubs in the Etisalat Cup games, two coaches in particular have shown suspicious restraint in voicing concerns.
Al Wahda’s Josef Hickersberger and Bani Yas’ Jorvan Vieira have kept quiet regarding the absence of their top players in recent weeks, leading many to believe they are courting officialdom with one eye on the national team position currently filled by caretaker Dr Abdullah Misfir.
Both were linked to the UAE job along with Al Shabab’s Paolo Bonamigo following Srecko Katanec’s dismissal, with Vieira, a 2007 Asian Cup winner with Iraq, suggesting he could juggle the roles for club and country.
Hickersberger, who has experience with Bahrain and Austria at international level, is possibly the most unsettled of the three, admitting mid-summer that Al Wahda would struggle to compete this season.
When asked if the UAE’s training camp for the South Korea match in Suwon on October 11 had started too early, to the detriment of Al Wahda’s Etisalat Cup campaign, there was no criticism from Hickersberger despite his team’s 3-0 loss to Al Wasl.
“This is the UAE national team and they’ve lost their first two matches,” he said.
“They’ve got a new coaching staff, with a new head coach, so they need time to prepare for this match [South Korea].”
The comments echoed Vieira’s words after Bani Yas’ 4-1 loss to Shabab in the Etisalat Cup last month.
“Last season was the same — you just have to carry on,” he said.
Priority is the UAE
“We have a duty to support and supply the national team coach and have players ready at his disposal at any time, to give him everything.
“I’m not saying this because I was a candidate.
“The priority here is to serve the UAE, we all defend one flag. There is the club flag but the national flag is a top priority.”
It’s a marked change in attitude since last season when most coaches used the absence of key players as an excuse for defeat.
Reading between the lines could reveal what Hickersberger and Vieira really wanted to say.
“I hope that we will not miss so many national team players for the next phase of the Etisalat Cup matches,” said Hickersberger after the Al Wasl loss.
Meanwhile, after an earlier loss to Al Shabab, Vieira said: “This is not an excuse to justify how we are playing badly but we lack real punch to fight because that depends on experience and maturity. Our real situation is we have seven or eight players in the national or Olympic team set-ups.”
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