Japan a huge test but UAE have chance to prove they belong at world level

The UAE's Asian Cup quarter-final against Japan could prove to be the biggest match in Emirati history. Ali Khaled explains why.

The UAE national team pose for photos ahead of their Group C game against Iran. They will not take on champions Japan in the quarter-finals. Edgar Su/Reuters

The UAE have moved to Australia’s biggest city as they prepare for the 2015 Asian Cup quarter-final against Japan, which can be fairly considered the biggest match of Mahdi Ali’s coaching career.

Bigger than the 2012 Olympics matches that had the UAE playing Uruguay at Old Trafford and Great Britain at Wembley, and bigger even than the 2013 Gulf Cup of Nations final in Manama, where the UAE were ultimately successful in beating Iraq 2-1.

Monday’s 1-0 defeat to Iran was painful, but when the UAE players took to the training field at Kogarah Oval here on Tuesday night you can be sure the single-minded coach already had shaken it out of their minds.

This is no time for self-pity: this quarter-final is what they have been working towards for many years.

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Mahdi Ali’s men take on the current Asian champions and favourites for this tournament.

A team who have in their ranks international superstars such as Shinji Kagawa, Keisuke Honda and Shinji Okazaki in a match where the eyes of a continent will be on both teams.

Matches do not come much bigger than that.

The UAE have been in excellent form in Australia and the results have reflected that – even the undeserved last-gasp defeat to Iran was a performance of a team at the top of their game.

The UAE have not contested an Asian Cup quarter-final since 1996 but they go into this match with expectations rather than just hope.

Not only is this the biggest match of this young team’s journey, it is one of the biggest in the history of UAE football.

The UAE has never been held in such high esteem internationally, even in comparison to the nation’s first golden generation of footballers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

When, in 1989, the UAE qualified to the 1990 World Cup in a mini-qualifying tournament in Singapore, it was hailed as a miracle, a Cinderella story for a country only 18 years old.

Playing at that World Cup in Italy was a wonderful achievement but the expectations, in what amounted to a “group of death” for the UAE, were minimal at best.

They lost all their matches to Colombia (2-0), West Germany (5-1) and Yugoslavia (4-1).

The Gulf Cup triumphs, in 2007 and 2013, the UAE’s only senior international titles, are rightly cherished by Emiratis but are regional concerns. They fall short of the importance of Friday’s clash.

The UAE’s second-place finish at the 1996 Asian Cup remains their finest hour, but even that achievement can be viewed with caveats.

For a start, the tournament was held in the UAE with the home team playing all their matches at Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and only Saudi Arabia, who beat the Emirates in the final on penalties, had a team worthy of comparison with some of Asia’s finest today.

In every sense, the UAE have come a long way since. When Majed Naser leads out the team at the magnificent Stadium Australia in Sydney, the UAE will be participating in a final eight that holds four teams who played in the last World Cup, including Japan.

They will be doing it with a battle-hardened team at the heart of which is a world-class player at the peak of his powers, Omar Abdulrahman.

Playing at this level, even against a formidable Japanese team, is a great opportunity and one to be cherished.

A victory would be noticed throughout the football world and would leave the UAE two games short of a first Asian championship.

There is no need for Mahdi Ali’s Emiratis to worry about champions Japan.

On the contrary, it is Japan who should worry about them.

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