#YES_TO_OMAN
Confident Oman play Singapore today
By Shail Vaidya — MUSCAT — Thoughts of the forthcoming Gulf Cup and Asian Cup of 2015 take centre stage as Oman take on Singapore today at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex Stadium, the team already having booked their ticket to next year’s showpiece in Australia. It has been a steady campaign so far, although lacking in goals as Oman sit pretty on the top of Group ‘A’ mostly due to their impressive defensive form. Ali al Habsi’s lengthy injury absence has brought out the best from stand-in keeper Faiz al Rushaidi and some impressive performances mean Oman are yet to concede a goal despite playing five games of qualifying. The problem however lays up front, their impressive defensive record doing well to hide the problems up front, the statistics speak for themselves, the Red Warriors having scored four goals in five games.
“It is a position where I would like to have more options, I am looking for players who can make the difference up front and change the game for us”, said Oman coach Paul le Guen at the pre-match press conference yesterday. His side are determined to win this match and finish top of the group and are clearly aware that they need to make certain improvements. “We want to finish top of the group, we are not satisfied with the Jordan result and we find this as a good opportunity to work and finish top of the group” said Le Guen. The Red Warriors are carrying a few injuries though, with Le Guen being forced to shuffle most of his back line as he misses Hassan Mudhafar and Mohammed al Maslami among a few others with Mohammed al Sheiba making a welcome return.
“I as a coach prefer to have a selection headache with all my players available but it is not the case and we have to do our best” said Le Guen about the injury crisis at the back. Singapore’s visit though sees former Oman coach Bernd Stange make his return to the Sultanate in the capacity of being their opponents coach. Stange coached Oman in the year 2001 for a brief spell of three months. These three months would give a lot to Oman football, John Burridge having first spotted Ali al Habsi during this time. “Oman’s progress has been tremendous since I have been here, when all the players were only amateurs, they are playing exciting football now and are almost at the next level and while they are yet to attain this ‘next level’, they have achieved many good things since I was here”, he said about his former team.
He was affording his opponents a lot of respect, saying Oman were at another level and he was currently rebuilding his team and this was a good challenge against a superior team to give his players valuable experience. It remains to be seen if Oman are as vastly superior as they are being made out to be but fans will definitely hope to see a dominant performance with a lot more goals today, particularly with the return of key players such as Imad Al Hosni. The match kicks off at 5.30 pm.
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