By Sports Reporter/Doha
|
In only their second competitive match, the Qatar girls’ Under-14s celebrated a point against the United Arab Emirates in the AFC U-14s Regional Championships last night.
After a disappointing 5-0 defeat at the hands of Palestine on Tuesday, the young female Qataris showed real grit hold on for their first point of the tournament.This was the first goalless game of the competition so far – but that is something coach Monika Stabb will not be concerned about after watching her young stars regain some confidence with a morale-boosting draw.
“I think the team gave their best again, just like our last game. We were slightly limited in our capacity and abiity to go forward. We really wanted a point from this game and we were really happy today to have achieved our goals.
“Today we won a point. I think in the first half the UAE had more of the ball and we had to spend a lot of time defending. They had some big players which was difficult for our young ones. They are only 10 or 11 years old,” said a visibly pleased looking Stabb after the match. “The girls were a bit slow because we hadn’t really recovered from the game. This is the first time the players have played in a competition and the players are nervous. This is the first time they have experienced anything like this.Give them five more tournaments and then I think they will be able to handle situations like this a little better. Now we play Jordan in our next game so it’s going to be interesting to see how we do in that game,” added Stabb.
The UAE’s little striker Toorfah Ali Saeed al-Ghafri caused Qatar problems all evening with her trickery and skill. But in the end not even her quality was enough to break the deadlock.
Chances were few and far between for both teams but there should be plenty positives to take for two teams who are still in their infancy.
Following on from crushing defeats against Palestine and Jordan where they lost 17 goals in two games, UAE coach Aliah Hussain al-Hosani was much happier after his side’s performance in this match. “Our players will take some confidence and experience from this tournament. They are learning all the time and I thought we did a lot better in this game.This is a good point for us,” said al-Hosani.