The draw for the second round of Asian Football Confederation qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup was a good one for the UAE – but not perfect.
The UAE are ranked 68th in the world and fifth in Asia, and their newly acquired status as one of the continent’s powerhouses had ensured a place in Pot 1.
Most top seeds, however, would have preferred to avoid the Pot 2 team the UAE drew: Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis are one of a small list of teams who have beaten the UAE in the past few years: the 3-2 Gulf Cup semi-final win in Riyadh last November being the last time the Emiratis lost to an Arab team.
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In that game, Saudi dealt with the threat of Omar Abdulrahman in the most efficient, even brutal, manner.
Still there can be few complaints about the overall outcome, despite Mahdi Ali’s irritation over what he sees as lack of support for his programme in the build up to the qualifiers.
The UAE will be expected to win their matches against Palestine, Timor-Leste and Malaysia, home and away. Anything less would be disappointing, at the least.
The UAE also will be wary of a slow start, as they had in 2011, when their Brazil 2014 campaign was over within five days of its start, after dismal defeats to Kuwait and Lebanon.
That sort of early collapse is extremely unlikely and the UAE should kick off their campaign with a victory at Timor-Leste on June 16.
Come the end of this round, next March, they will expect to have done enough to win Group A or advance to the final 12 of Asian qualifying as a strong second.
Then they face the real test.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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