The UAE's 2010 World Cup qualifying preparations face their first test in Le Touquet, France, tonight when they play Algeria in a friendly. Bruno Metsu's men have been in a training camp in Europe for a month as they prepare to face North Korea in their first qualifying match on Sept 6 and Saudi Arabia four days later, both in Abu Dhabi, in Pool B.
South Korea and Iran are the two others in the group from which the top two earn automatic qualification for the finals in South Africa. Metsu, the charismatic Frenchman who led Senegal to the last eight of the 2002 World Cup, will be looking at this opening friendly as a guide to his players' technical skills and fitness from the European camp. "The players went through a conditioning camp in Switzerland before moving to France where they have been working on the technical skills and fine tuning on their game," said the team manager Abdulla Hassan Abdulla.
"The coach and his technical staff will evaluate the players from the game against Algeria and then carry it forward to our final friendly with Bahrain on August 29 at Abu Dhabi, for which we hope to get the playing 11. "So these two games are pretty important and the players have to show how much they have gained from the training camp." Abdulla did not reveal the line-up for tonight's match but insisted all the country's top players are likely to feature.
"It is for the coach to select the team and he wants to play the best combination. This game is all about getting the right combination. The best will go into this game and the best line-up will take on Bahrain. We also have a game with a French Professional Select team on Friday in France before we head back to Abu Dhabi." @Email:apassela@thenational.ae