The UAE’s one and only friendly before their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign begins next week ended in a disappointing 3-0 loss to South Korea in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
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A tepid performance from the UAE was rightly punished by the Koreans, who were superior throughout the 90 minutes.
In front of a sparse crowd of largely South Korean supporters, Mahdi Ali’s side were firmly on the back foot early on, looking very much like a side that hadn’t played together in five months.
The Whites’ last outing was at the tail end of January, when they secured a third-place finish at the Asian Cup with a 3-2 victory over Iran in Australia.
With an opening World Cup qualifier against Timor Leste awaiting on Tuesday, the UAE will be grateful for the outing in Malaysia but questions will be asked of their incoherent display.
If it wasn’t for a superbly timed slide tackle from Ismail Ahmed, the UAE would have been 1-0 down inside seven minutes as his Al Ain teammate Mohanad Salem failed to deal with a long ball over the top that released South Korea striker Lee Jae-Sung on the edge of the UAE penalty area.
That lapse from Salem was a sign of things to come as the Al Ain man looked all at sea, despite having the season of his career for his AGL side. It was hoped that Salem and Ahmed would build on a fantastic season at club level for the national side but their understanding and communication was lacking.
Japan beating Iraq 3-0 in Yokohama, South Korea beating UAE 3-0 in Kuala Lumpur. Too easy
— John Duerden (@JohnnyDuerden) June 11, 2015
There is still time for the Al Ain pair to come good at international level and they will be better for forgetting this friendly if they are to do so.
Ahmed was more settled and kept his side in the game once again shortly before the half hour mark as the usually reliable Khalid Essa erroneously fumbled an easy take, which Lee again pounced on, only for his finish to be expertly blocked again by the sliding Ahmed.
Essa made up for his error 10 minutes later to deny Yong-Jae Lee’s close range header as the UAE were overrun by their opponents in the first half.
South Korea made their dominance count on the stroke of half-time as Suwon Bluewings midfielder Ki-Hun Yeom slotted home a free-kick from the edge of the area to give his side a deserved 1-0 lead.
Ali made much-needed changes at half-time and the UAE were far brighter as a result, their first real threat on goal coming as substitute Saeed Al Kathiri did well to get a header on target as he back pedaled but it was easily claimed by Korea ‘keeper Seung-Gyu Kim.
Despite improving at the start of the second half, the UAE inexcusably switched off from a throw in on the hour mark and Korea doubled their lead.
A simple hoist forward did for the on-rushing Salem, who misjudged the bounce of the ball and allowed Lee Yong-Jae to make up for his previous profligacy and calmly apply a finish between the legs of Essa to kill the game off.
Deserved gloss was added to the scoreline in the 90th minute as Lee Jung-Hyub tapped home from five yards with the goal at his mercy.
While South Korea pose a markedly more difficult threat than Timor Leste, the team ranked 11 places higher than the UAE by FIFA (Korea are 57th) were depleted by injuries to key men.
It offered Ali’s men a chance to make a statement ahead of their World Cup campaign, but they were largely at odds for the duration of the game.
Star man at the Gulf Cup and Asian Cup, Ali Mabkhout, did not feature while Omar Abdulrahman was off the pace, a reflection of how his season with Al Ain ended.
