Van Marwijk returns for second spell as national team coach

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

The UAE named Bert Van Marwijk as the new coach of the national football team on Monday. Van Marwijk, who left a little over a year ago, is returning as the successor of Jorge Luis Pinto.

Van Marwijk was with the UAE team for nine months during his first stint. He is a renowned coach, who guided The Netherlands to the FIFA World Cup final in 2010 and also helped Saudi Arabia in their qualification for the 2018 World Cup held in Russia. He also coached Australia at the 2018 World Cup.

The UAE FA made the announcement through their social media platforms and the deal is expected to be signed once the Dutchman reaches the UAE.

Former Al Ain coach Zoran Mamic was also in reckoning for the top job but he was facing some personal issues back home. UAE ex-coach Mehdi Ali’s name was also discussed before the management zeroed in on Van Marwijk.

During his first spell as the UAE coach, Van Marwijk had mixed fortunes with the team. He was appointed in March and departed in December in 2019 following their defeat against Qatar at the Gulf Cup, after not even completing a year.

He had taken over from Italian Alberto Zaccheroni, who also left after the Whites went down against Qatar in the semifinals of the 2019 Asian Cup earlier. Zaccheroni was in charge for 15 months. But his new ideas and rotation policy had hurt the team badly. Van Marwijk had started his rein on a very promising note, guiding the Whites to victories in the friendlies. The Whites defeated Dominican Republic (4-0) and Sri Lanka (5-1).

The UAE also had registered comprehensive victories against Malaysia 2-1 and versus Indonesia 5-0 in the opening matches of the qualifiers.

Apparently, it looked that the UAE are in the right track on their way to the World Cup qualifiers before the reality check came.

They had to face successive defeats at the hands of Thailand and Vietnam, going down against their South Asians rivals 2-1 and 1-0 respectively, which seriously dented their World Cup dreams.

However, with a convincing 3-0 win against Yemen at the Gulf Cup, the UAE got that tournament campaign to a flying start. But the joy was shortlived as they were eliminated from the tourney following two consecutive defeats against Iraq and Qatar, which led to Van Marwijk’s sacking.

In his second spell, Van Marwijk faces an uphill task of taking the UAE to the next round of the joint 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers.

UAE’s hopes of qualification hang by a thread as they have to win all their remaining matches to keep their hopes alive. They are at the fourth spot in their group. The qualifiers will be held in March after a series of procrastinations due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. The pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe which resulted in the cancellation and postponement of many sporting events around the world.

The Whites will take on Malaysia on March 25, 2021 and will meet Indonesia six days later in their second round fixtures of the joint qualifiers.

They will also face Thailand on June 7 and Vietnam on June 15 next year. Marwijk has enough time to chart out a route for the World Cup qualification.

His predecessor Pinto was also entrusted with the same responsibility before being sacked just five months after his appointment.

Pinto’s contract was terminated with the mutual consent of both the parties after evaluating the performance of the team under the Colombian.

He was handed a two-year contract in the beginning with a clause of further extension, depending on the performance of the team under him.

Pinto had replaced Serbian Jovan Ivanovic, who also had ended his collaboration with the national team even without taking charge for a single game. Like his predecessor, Pinto also did not get the opportunity to lead the team in any official match.

Due to coronavirus, Pinto could not assume charge of the team in any official match. He was supposed to manage the team in the joint qualifiers, which were slated to be held in August 2020 but were postponed until October before being postponed for another six and which will now be held in March 2021.

Pinto led the team in a few friendlies, wherein the UAE had a mixed fortune. The UAE played three international friendlies under Pinto against Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Bahrain. They lost to Uzbekistan 2-1, struggled to eke out a narrow 3-2 win against Tajikistan before losing to Bahrain on home turf.

Out-going Pinto had wished the UAE all the best for their future endeavour.