UAE seek fine tuning against Azerbaijan

The triple battle last weekend had Mendes? side prevailing twice, and the Azeri winning last game on extra time

The National sides of UAE and Azerbaijan faced this last weekend in a threesome friendly-game series which fell on the Mendes-steered side. Seeking to get ready for the upcoming Samsung Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, the Arab side hosted these busy days, and chose a competitive, hard-fighting team such as the Azeri to find their best level.

In the first of the matches, Rami and Rashid got the hosts a tight victory 2-1. Indeed, all three fixtures were terribly balanced, only decided through a one-goal difference, and Adil, Hussain and Rami managing again to hit once more than their opponents (3-2).

After trying hard, Azerbaijan finally achieved to win their game in the third attempt, after an extra-time hit against a substitute-packed UAE.

One of the main targets for UAE National Coach Marcelo Mendes during the weekend was, besides training on a competition basis, to have more data to help penciling the list of players who will take part in the Samsung Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup Dubai 2012, to take place in Festival City as of next October 30th.

“Our main goal to have this friendly series against Azerbaijan was to see how our players responded. In the third match we deliberately rested the main players as we wanted to see if we could have a good response from the reserves bench”, coach Marcelo Mendes said.

“I am happy with the level shown by the reserve players and this can only benefit the team when we take on tougher sides in the Intercontinental Cup”, he added.