AFC Asian Cup 2019: We want to repeat the Gulf Cup triumph- Oman coach Pim Verbeek
Oman lifted their second
Arabian Gulf Cup title earlier this year defeating the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) in the final — a feat that will boost their confidence heading in to the
Asian Cup that they are yet to win, but have been dominated by West Asian
countries traditionally.
“It gives confidence to
the players, to the selection, not only the first XI but all the players, that
we can beat teams, good teams. We’re back at the front in the Gulf and now the
next step is to do that at the Asian level,” the 62-year-old Dutch tactician
told the-AFC.com.
In the Gulf Cup, Oman
finished ahead of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait in the group stages while also
trumping Bahrain in the semifinals. Now, at the Asian Cup kicking off on
January 5, they are pitted against Japan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in Group
F.
“I like to play Japan —
they’re one of the best teams and they play combination football at a very high
level and that will be a very interesting game. Uzbekistan are a tough team who
are well organised, strong physically and experienced because every time they
are in the final 10 teams to try to qualify for the World Cup, so they have
more experience that we have,” Verbeek said.
“Turkmenistan is a team
that’s a little unknown in Asia and with us, so we knew we would have tough
teams to face, whether it’s Iran or Australia or Korea Republic. It’s also not
easy to have Qatar or Syria or Jordan in your group. They have good
organisation, good preparation and, when you compare with Oman, they have good
leagues.”
.
“But we have to deal
with that and that’s why we have a long training camp, to be ready for that
first game against Uzbekistan,” the former South Korea and Australia gaffer
said.
Oman come into the
tournament with an unbeaten streak stretching for almost a year. In fact, they
remain unbeaten in the 2018 calendar year.
“We played some good
friendly matches against Jordan, Syria and Bahrain, we played Ecuador and we
haven’t lost a game. In 2018 we haven’t lost one match and that says enough.
We’ve played seven or eight games and we haven’t lost, so we have the
confidence,” said the coach.
