Only a couple of weeks ago, Al-Jazira Abu Dhabi looked like an unstable team that will struggle to create a real threat on the Emirati title.
Yet, a couple of weeks are a long time in football measures.
The club from the capital city has done a refreshing change in recent weeks. At the beginning of the season, the team was almost completely depended on the ability of their experienced local players and foreign signings, such as Ali Mabkhout, Serbian Milo Kosanovic and later on the Nigerian Imo Ezekiel, to shine. But not anymore.
In their last game, away at Fujairah, the talented youngsters in the squad, Abdullah Ramadan and Zayed Al-Ameri, together with the team’s magician, Khalfan Mubarak, took the wheel to their feet and were pioneering the team for an impressive victory. Now the team is already in the second place, with three consecutive wins in a row only three points away from the league leaders, Sharjah.
Living with Expectations
In the reality of Emirati football, it is not easy to be Al-Jazira. As the club that is most identified with the strongest man in the Gulf country, Mohammed bin Zayed, and the whole Al-Nahyan family, the expectations are always at the top, in every game, in every possession, no matter what the circumstances are.
After struggling to find the right balance between defence and attack in the first games of this term, it is clear that the players are more used to the dynamic 4-4-2 of the Dutch coach Marcel Keizer. While in the first victories in the season it seemed that if not for Mabkhout, the team won’t score - against Fujairah it looked completely different.
Although there are some spaces to close in the back-line, and the fact that it took them an hour to opening the scorings, the combination in the attack between Mubarak and Al-Ameri worked perfectly, and the latter finished with a brace mainly thanks to the creativity of the team’s no. 10.
With the absence of Omar Abdulrahman, Amoory, Khalfan Mubarak is much confident and free to work his magic all over the place, and together with Mabkhout up front, the two look like the faces that the young guns in the team to look upon and learn.
In the second half talented Abdullah Ramadan continued his positive and impressive start for the season, paving his way as an important member in Al-Jazira’ starting line-up. His cooperation with Mubarak and Mabkhout from the midfield was sublime and helped his team make the necessary step forward - from a team that looks in the mid of an identity search, to a confident and promising football side.
Training, not Buying
It seems that Al-Jazira’s undeclared philosophy, of training and nurturing the local talents, rather than buying big names or foreign megastars, is starting to seep in the system and the players.
Late in November the right-back Khalifa Al-Hammadi, a young and promising 22-year-old Emirati, has signed a new contract for five years. This actions and victories such as the 0-3 away against Fujairah, starring Al-Ameri and Ramadan, shows that the club is going in the right direction.
This direction might be different from what most of Emirati football was used to until very recently. Still, if more teams adopt this model, the Golden Generation of 1989 or even the one of 2015, won’t stay such a faraway memory.
Photo via Al-Jazira Abu Dhabi official Twitter.
