Al Ahli coach Caparros quits

Al Ahli coach Joaquin Caparros quit from his post yesterday citingpersonal reasons. Caparros tendered his resignation to the clubmanagement through telephone from his native Spain and offered apologiesas the team is gearing up for the second phase of QNB Stars League.The club management, which accepted Caparros’ apology, was to hold anemergency meeting last night to discuss replacement for him. The Spaniard’s sudden resignation has put Al Ahli in a spot. They willhost Al Gharafa in the 12th round of QNB Stars League on 12th January.The Brigadiers are sixth in the standings with 14 points after 11matches with four wins, five draws and two defeats. Caparros’resignation came at a time when Al Ahli were on a high having defeatedstrong teams Al Sailiya and Al Rayyan in the last two rounds before theleague took a break.Al Arabi, Al Markhiya play friendly matchAl Arabi played host to Al Markhiya in a friendly yesterday as part oftheir  preparations for the second phase of QNB Stars League. The matchprovided Al Arabi’s Croatian coach Luka Bounacic with an opportunity totry out various combinations ahead of their 12th-round match against AlSailiya on 12th January at the Al Ahli Stadium.Meanwhile, the players, except Ahmed Fathi and Saad Nateq who are doingduty for Qatar and Iraq respectively at the Gulf Cup in Kuwait,continued their training under the watchful eyes of coaching staff. Interestingly, the two players faced each other on Tuesday when Qatar went down 1-2 to Iraq in a group matchHowever, Syrian professional player Mardik Mardikian attended thetraining sessions after recovering from an injury. He is expected to befully fit for the forthcoming fixtures and compensate for his below-parperformance in the first phase.Al Sailiya going full steam aheadAl Sailiya Football Head Abdulla al-Hanzab said they were fully gearingup for the second phase of QNB Stars League, which will start on 11thJanuary. The team is currently having a training camp at the Aspire Zoneas part of preparations chalked out by the club’s technical andadministrative staff. The camp, which began on 23rd December, aims to further improve theplayers’ performance on the physical and technical fronts. It is alsodesigned to enhance their mental fitness in a positive atmosphere.Al-Hanzab said the players responded well to the strategies adopted bythe coaching staff, adding they took the camp in utmost seriousnessconsidering that the league’s second phase would be too demanding. “Wewanted our players to take full advantage of the atmosphere at the campso that they would be ready for the challenges in the tough secondphase. We must put in our best efforts and stay focused in order not todrop points.“Our performance in the first phase should be a motivation for theplayers to continue from where they left off. We did quite well in thefirst part of the league. Hopefully, we’ll score more points from theremaining 11 games,” he said.Al-Hanzab stressed consistency has helped them achieve the fourth placein standings. “The technical as well as administrative stabilitycontributed greatly to our performance so far this season. Clubmanagement, coach (Sami) Trabelsi and the players played a great role init,” he said.Al Sailiya have 19 points from six victories. Al-Hanzab spoke about thechances of Qatar at the ongoing Gulf Cup in Kuwait. “The Qatar squad is agood mix of youth and experience. We wish Al Annabi good luck and hopethey perform well in the tournament. That’ll be important for Qatar intheir future engagements,” he added.