Keizer rues quarters fixtures; Da Silva delighted

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Al Jazira coach Marcel Keizer expressed his dissatisfaction over their quarter-finals fixtures of the Arabian Gulf Cup on next Friday.

“This date is not suitable for us as a lot players, who are in the national team will be on national duty at the on-going Gulf Cup in Qatar. This is crucial time as the tournament has reached knock out stages,” said Keizer.

“There are a lot of important players, who will be absent for the crucial last-eight clash, but I am not thinking much about it. My focus is on the players, who are available for the quarter-finals,” said Keizer, whose team reached booked their spot in the last eight despite loss to Ittihad Kalba in the last round match of the Arabian Gulf Cup on Saturday.

“We will soon start a special training session with players who are available after short break of the National Day holidays.

“All the players who played against Kalba will be available for selection and their replacements are also ready. There are no injuries in the team and all the players are fit,” he informed.

Commneting on their loss against Kalba, he said: “We played better in the first half and took a 1-0 lead as well. But we could not carry on the momentum in the second half of the match and eventually ended up in losing the game. We became over confident in the second half after taking a 1-0 lead. That affected us negatively. Apart from that, in the second-half, there were a lot wrong passes and errors in the field position, which led to our defeat,” he informed.

Explaing the inclusion of Omar Abdulrehman in the 37th minute, he said: “Actually he is being used as an alternative. It is better for him so that he recovers and gets used to the conditions as soon as possible. It is very important to use him wisely until he is fully fit,” concluded Keizer.

Meanwhile, Kalba’s Uruguayan coach Jorge Da Silva was delighted with the result.

“It is a great victory against Al Jazira. We are very happy with the results despite the fact that we could not qualify for the quarter-finals. We played very well in the second half and put pressure back on Al Jazira despite trailing by 1-0.”

He also lauded his players for their brave fight back in the second-half.

“The second-half performance of the team reassured me  of their level of competence. The game was a good preparation for the Arabian Gulf League, which resumes shortly.

“This result will boost the confidence of the team for the Ajman clash in the league. We were win-less in the tournament before this match but we did not want to end our campaign like that. We are happy to be bowing out of the tournament with our heads held high,” he added.

“All the players are in good shape and there are no injury scares in the team as of now. The only thing that we regret is losing Mlapa for the Ajman clash because of the repeated warnings that he got during the game.”

Mlapa scored both the goal in Kalba’s victory over Al Jazira to fetch them their only win of the tournament.