Oman to head for Dubai camp tomorrow

Ivankovic satisfied with players back to training

Muscat, March 9

Oman national football team will head off to Dubai city on Thursday to begin the first overseas camp in 2021 which is significant part of team’s gearing up to the joint 2022 Fifa World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. The ‘Red Warriors’ started the internal camp on Monday at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in presence of all the selected players for the camp.

According to the schedule of training plan, the fourth and fifth training sessions will take place on Wednesday morning and evening after three sessions which occurred on Monday and Tuesday. The warm-up programme will be continued the same day of team’s arrival in Dubai as the evening training session will begin at 8 pm on Thursday.

Head coach Branko Ivankovic, accompanied by the assistant coaching staff supervised the training sessions in Bausher. The coaching staff began with fitness and stretching trainings as initial warm up. The tactical and technical sessions took place in the evening period. The players trained in very narrow spaces to raise the technical coordination among them. Besides, the players also trained shooting for long distances and creating the scoring chances.

Ivankovic expressed his satisfaction with team returning to the training ground and said the first days of the camp went smoothly and players delivered good level during the sessions. “Dhofar and Al Suwaiq players did some recovery trainings and we followed up with the players who were under medical supervision,” he added.

JUMA REPLACES KHALID

On the other hand, the coaching staff replaced injured Khalid al Buraiki with Seeb’s Juma al Habsi in the team list.

Shaikh Salim bin Said al Wahaibi, Chairman of Oman Football Association (OFA) met the coaching, administration staff and the players on Monday.

The OFA chief discussed with the players on the top team assignment at the joint qualifiers and raising the technical preparations level for this significant event. “I hope all the team players achieve the desired objectives in the forthcoming external camp in the UAE which will start on Thursday. The camp is part of the team’s preparation also for the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup Championship, “ he ended.

The Red Warriors will have the first international match against Jordan on March 20 in Dubai while the next preparatory fixture is scheduled against India on March 25.

OMAN PROBABLES

Goalkeepers: Fayez al Rushaidi, Ahmed al Rawahi, Ibrahim al Mukhaini; Defenders: Mohammed al Musallami, Ahmad al Khamisi, Ali al Nahar, Fahmi Durbin, Juma al Habsi, Abdulaziz al Ghilani, Ali al Busaidy, Ahmad al Kaabi and Abbas al Hashimi; Midfielders: Abdullah Fawaz, Harib al Saadi, Yazid al Mashani, Amjad al Harthi, Zahir al Aghbari, Salah al Yahyai, ​​Omar al Fazari, Mohsin Jawhar and Yaseen al Shiyadi; Forwards: Abdulaziz al Maqbali, Mohammad al Ghafri, Khalid al Hajri, Mohsin al Ghassani and Omar al Malki.

Adil Al Balushi