We have a plan in place, says coach Ali

July 26, 2012

Alicoach


Manchester, July 26: “We have prepared the team for this competition and hopefully we are ready for tomorrow,” a confident UAE coach Mahdi Ali said at the official press conference at the Old Trafford on Thursday.


“We will play our football and ensure we have some minor changes to handle a team like Uruguay. They have a good team and some experienced players [Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani], but we have our plan in place,” the coach added.


Ali is hoping for all the support he can get from UAE nationals in the UK or from fellow Gulf nations.


“For us, this match is historic. For the past 28 years, we have been trying to compete in the Olympic Games in football and this is a dream come true,” Ali said.

“We didn’t come here as novices but as a team that has played at the highest level that has played some real tough matches at the top level. This group of players form the core of the squad that has played in the Asian Cup and the Fifa U-19 World Cup. We have come here to show that we deserve to be here,” he added.


“The UAE is such a small country, but we have loads of passion and confidence. This is our time to shine and the most important match is the first one tomorrow. This will be the key,” he stressed.

UAE captain Esmail Mattar continued in the same strain.


“We don’t think about individual players [Luis Suarez]. We respect them, but believe in ourselves and what we can achieve,” Mattar said.


“At this moment we are only thinking about tomorrow’s game. We have come here with good preparations and we believe we will be successful. We need to take things one at a time,” he added.


Meanwhile, Mattar’s teammate and main striker Ahmad Khalil has set a personal goal for this competition. “It’s great for a striker’s confidence to score goals, but now I am hoping to score in the competition so that I can win the Golden Boot at the Olympics,” Khalil said.



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News Network
March 28,2020

Milan, Mar 28: Juventus star Paulo Dybala revealed how he "struggled to breathe" after contracting coronavirus which has killed over 9,000 people in Italy.

The Argentine international announced last Saturday he was one of three Juventus players to catch the virus along with Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi, who both had no symptoms.

"I feel better now after some strong symptoms," the 26-year-old Dybala told JTV channel.

"A couple of days ago I was not well, I felt heavy and after five minutes of movement I had to stop because I was struggling to breathe.

"Now I can move and walk to start trying to train, because when I tried in the past few days I started to shake too much.

"I gasped for air and as a result I couldn't do anything, after five minutes I was already very tired, I felt the body heavy and my muscles hurt.

"Now I'm fine. My fiancee Oriana (Sabatini) has also overcome the symptoms."

Dybala has scored 13 goals in all competitions this season, including in league leader's Juventus's last game against Inter Milan before Serie A and all sport in Italy was suspended.

"The goal against Inter was the greatest emotion, (Aaron) Ramsey provided the perfect assist - it's a pity that there was no public," added Dybala.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

London, May 31: "Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli," replied umpire Ian Gould when he was asked to name the three best batsmen he loved watching when he was officiating as an umpire.

The former ICC elite umpire said that he was unlucky to not watch Ponting bat as much as he would have liked to.

"Jacques Kallis. I loved watching Jacques. He was a very, very fine player. Sachin. And probably Virat. I was unlucky in some respects. I didn't see the best of Ricky Ponting. He was an outstanding character, outstanding captain, such a proud Australian," ESPNCricinfo quoted Gould as saying.

"But his career was just starting to wane as I came on the scene. But he was incredibly helpful, so I'm disappointed I have to leave him out. Jacques Kallis, I could sit and watch all day, Virat, the same. And Sachin, if you want someone to bat for your life, he was the man," he added.

Gould had retired from the ICC's panel of elite umpires in 2019, after standing in more than 250 international matches over a 13-year career.

Over the years, comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli has 70 centuries across all formats.

While, Kallis played 166 Tests, 328 ODIs and 25 T20Is for South Africa and he is often viewed as the greatest all-rounder the game has seen.

Many pundits of the game find it hard to pick between him and Sir Garfield Sobers.

Across his career, Kallis scored 25,534 runs in his career and he also managed to take 577 wickets.

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News Network
May 9,2020

May 9: Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has donated an undisclosed amount to financially help 4,000 underprivileged people, including children from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tendulkar made the donation to the Hi5 Foundation, a non-profit organisation based out of Mumbai.

“Best wishes to team Hi5 for your efforts in supporting families of daily wage earners,” Tendulkar tweeted.

The organisation, through a tweet, thanked Tendulkar for doing his bit for the needy.

“Thanks @sachin_rt for proving once again that #sports encourages compassion! Your generous donation towards our #COVID19 fund enables us to financially aid 4000 underprivileged people, including children from @mybmc schools. Our budding sportspersons thank you, Little Master!”

The legendary batsman had earlier contributed Rs 25 lakh each to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the country’s fight against COVID-19. Tendulkar had earlier pledged to bear the cost of feeding 5,000 people for a month in a couple of areas in Mumbai.

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