A year ago, as the clock ticked towards 2009, the senior national football team was in a bit of a shambles.
The Whites had not tasted victory since the beginning of June 2008, losing six of their 10 games in the second half of the year.
Defeats at home to North Korea and Saudi Arabia had wrecked their start to the final round of Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and consequentially coach Bruno Metsu walked away, leaving his assistant Dominique Bathenay saddled with the repair job.
The Frenchman, not everyone's favourite for the position, took the team to Oman for the defence of their Gulf Cup crown in the New Year and returned after just three games, failing to progress beyond the group stages.
Starting with a 3-1 win over minnows Yemen, they played a 0-0 draw with Qatar before crashing out with a 3-0 defeat by Saudi Arabia.
A 5-0 Asian Cup qualifier win in Malaysia suggested Bathenay and his team could still be battling for at least the play-off berth for the 2010 World Cup, but those dreams were shattered by defeats in North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
South Korea dumped more misery on the team with a 2-0 win in the UAE and Bathenay's tenure ended with a 1-0 loss in Tehran.
The team finished the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with just one point from eight games, leaving the fans and the football establishment disillusioned.
Bathenay, as expected, was shown the door and the hunt for a new coach began in earnest.
As names like Arrigo Sacchi and Luiz Felipe Scolari were being bandied around, the Football Association sprang a surprise by picking a "little-known" Slovenian, Srecko Katanec, as Bathenay's successor.
The fans and media were, of course, not too pleased with the choice, but the bosses were convinced they had got the right man for the job in the former Yugoslav international and Slovenian coach. And they were right.
Given the job in June, Katanec had a good three months before his first game, a 1-1 draw against Palestine in October. That was followed by wins over Jordan, Manchester City and the Czech Republic.
After six games, his report card reads three wins and a loss, and heading towards his first match in official competition - the January 6 Asian Cup qualifier at home against Malaysia - there is much optimism around the team.
The success of the youth team at the Under 20 World Cup, of course, has also added to the spirits. Going to Egypt as Asian champions, Mahdi Ali's team reached the quarter-finals before crashing out in a heartbreaking extra-time loss to Costa Rica.
Every neutral observer agreed UAE were the better team and did not deserve to lose.
Still, Hamdan al Kamali, the captain, and his band had made the nation proud and returned home to a hero's welcome.
Players like al Kamali, Amer Abdulrahman, Ahmed Ali and Ahmed Khalil were among the stars of the tournament and should be carrying the hopes of the nation over the next decade.
There is also some promising talents from the U17 team, who reached the second round of the World Cup in Nigeria, waiting in the wings.
@Email:arizvi@thenational.ae
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Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.
It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.
The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media.
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: N2 Technology
Founded: 2018
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Startups
Size: 14
Funding: $1.7m from HNIs
Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
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