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Gulf News -
Al Wasl will start
their preparations tomorrow for the new season at their stadium in
Zaabeel.
The internal training continues until July 30 under Dutch coach Boskamp,
who begins his second year with the club. The team leaves on July 31 for
Belgium to conduct a one-month training camp.
The delegation will include 40 players from the senior and reserve team.
The reserves will play in a new league, which will be introduced by the
Football Association for the first time this season.
"The external training will be at the same place where it was held
last year. We will take 40 players including the reserve team, who will be
prepared well for the Reserve League.
"The senior team and the reserve will play five warm-up matches each
during in Belgium," Farouq Abdul Rahman, Al Wasl senior team manager,
told Gulf News yesterday.
Farouq said Farhad Majeedi and Hamid Kavianpour, the professionals
from Iran, had started training at the club's stadium last week. "Farhad
and Kavianpour began training early in order to adapt themselves for
the conditions."
When asked about changing the Chilean striker Cristian Montecinos with Kavianpour,
he said: "Our coach thought it would be useful for the team if we
have a midfielder instead of a striker, since we already have another
striker in Farhad."
The Al Wasl team manager promised that the team will show a better
performance in the coming season. "Last year's performance was poor.
We finished sixth in the league, lost the FA Cup semifinals and was
eliminated from the President's Cup due to the FA's punishment.
"However, I think we are passing through a rebuilding phase. We
injected new blood into the team by giving chance to youngsters. Our
supporters must be patient because experience is not obtained in few
weeks, but it takes two to three years."
Farouq, manager of the six-time league champions, added: "Tareq
Hasan, Juma Darwish, Ahmed Khalfan, Mohammed Khalil, Ahmed Omer, Hamad
Guloom are all young players. Most of them are attacking midfielders and
strikers. We hope they will put up a good performance in the coming
season."
Farouq said the next season will be very tough. "All the first
division teams will be well-prepared as they have signed with excellent
professional players. I think the league tournament will be very tough,
and all the teams will be difficult to beat," concluded Farouq.
Meanwhile, Salim Mubarak, the Hatta Club senior football team goalkeeper,
is to join Al Wasl Club. "Salim is a good goalkeeper. Last week he
began training with us. Coach Boskamp will decide to include him this
week," said Farouq Abdul Rahman.
With the signing of Salim, Al Wasl will have four goalkeepers. They are
Ahmed Salim, who is now with the national Olympic team, Salah Hussain,
Mohammed Hussain and Salim Mubrak.
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