The UAE's U-23 Olympic Football Team has increased the pace of their preparations for their two London 2012 Olympic round one qualifiers against Sri Lanka, on March 8 and 11.
The team started training with only ten players as Al Jazira, Al Ain, Al Wahda, Emirates, Al Ahli and Al Shabab players were all away on AFC Champions League or GCC Club Championship duty.
However last night, Mahdi Ali, the team's senior coach, supervised a complete line-up after the players started to return from midweek continental and regional competition.
Omar Abdul Rahman, Al Ain, Hamdan Al Kamali and Adil Al Housani, both from Al Wahda and Mubarak Saeed, Emirates, were the last to join the training camp at Fairmont Bab Al Bahar Hotel in the capital.
Expenses paid
Both matches against Sri Lanka will be played at Bani Yas stadium in Al Shamkha area according to the agreement between the UAE FA and their Sri Lankan counterparts with the UAE FA paying for the full expenses of tickets and accommodation for the visitors.
"The Morale of the players is high and I am confident that they will go further in these qualificiations." Ali told Gulf News yesterday.
The same team has won the silver medal of football competition in the Asian Games in China in November last year.
Confident talk
Ali said: "We have no idea about the team we will play against but we have an idea about the Sri Lankan football in general by watching former teams from there. I am sure that my team will be able to win promotion to the second round."
"We are hopeful that this team can win promotion to the Olympic Games for the fist time in our history and they are really capable of doing that."
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