UAE football team ready to rewrite history

Olympic qualification would mark a defining moment in UAE football, according to Mahdi Ali, who has led the national team's current ‘golden generation' for seven years leading up to this climactic showdown in Tashkent on Wednesday. Together since the age of 14 this prized batch of footballers have won the 2006 U17 Gulf Cup, the 2008 U19 Asian Cup, the 2010 U23 Gulf Cup, and silver at the 2010 Asian Games, also reaching the quarters of the 2009 U20 World Cup. But the opportunity to participate at the London Olympics this summer would top it all off in terms of the projects' pinnacle. Ali told Gulf News: "We've worked very hard to come to this moment since 2004 when I started with the U15s. This dream started as a small goal but it became bigger and bigger. "The moment to achieve our dreams as a coach, a player or a country is now. We've all been waiting for this moment and we have to work hard to achieve our goal. We are very keen and optimistic about this game and we will fight until the end to make this dream a reality. It's a massive opportunity for both sides, Uzbekistan also has the chance to enter the Olympics for the first time too but we started this journey with hard work and will end it with more of the same." Technically, a draw would suffice for the UAE — in this — round three's final group phase game. The UAE is three points ahead of Uzbekistan meaning anything less than a result [win or draw] on Wednesday in Tashkent would see the hosts leapfrog Mahdi Ali's outfit for first. The UAE would then have to travel to Vietnam for a three-team round-robin March 25-29, the winner of which faces Senegal for a decisive play-off in Coventry, England, on April 23. But that's a likelihood Ali won't acknowledge. Ali said: "I don't think about the future, about what ifs, maybe this will happen or maybe that. It's possible it may rain and the pitch will be full of ice so we can't play. I'm only focused on this game. "We played Uzbekistan three times, in a 2008 friendly, the final of the Asian Cup and then we played the first third round encounter in Al Ain recently. No specific player of theirs is outstanding but they are a very well organised team with good spirit. It won't be easy for us to fulfil the dream but qualifying to the Olympics for the first time would make us all very happy." Asked by the Uzbek media if his team would play out for the necessary draw, Ali added: "You learn a lot from football. Experience tells me you can never guarantee a result. Nothing is easy in this game. We will not play for a draw - we play to win."