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Oman coach Paul Le Guen and skipper Ali Al Habsi addressing the media on eve of their opening Asian Cup 2015 qualifier against Syria. Photo – Jun Estrada
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Muscat: Oman coach Paul Le Guen have asked his players to 'start afresh' and forget about their disastrous Gulf Cup campaign as they take on Syria in the 2015 Asian Cup Group A qualifier opener at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Bausher. Speaking at a press conference at Grand Hyatt hotel, the Frenchman said he have asked his players to focus on a more important tournament.
"We are playing a much bigger tournament such as this and its time we forget about what happened in the Gulf Cup. My boys are ready for this and the win against China is a perfect example for that," said Le Guen.
Oman is placed along with Syria, Jordan and Singapore in Group A. Le Guen received a big psychological boost ahead of their qualifiers match against Syria after a 1-0 win over China in an international friendly played in Muscat last week.
When Times Sport asked if his boys are under any pressure after local media were critical against the team's Gulf Cup debacle, Le Guen had this to say: "You know how the situation was during that time. I know how the fans here take football but we need to understand from the players point of view. They can be at their best at the same time they can even be at their worst but I don't want to blame them because they have not played badly. It was sheer bad luck and I want to take the responsibility. I have clearly told them to forget about the Gulf Cup and instead start all-fresh."
Le Guen is buoyant after the arrival of international goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi and striker Imad Al Hosni from their professional league games and the soft-spoken coach is confident to make a winning start. "It certainly is a big boost. Habsi is a world-class footballer and so is Imad. Any top teams would want to have the services of these two players," he noted. Skipper Habsi whose services were missed during the Gulf Cup expressed confidence in his side.
"We cannot look back and say we had a bad Gulf Cup. We need to look ahead. We had to face even worst situations than this one and we had made big comeback after that. At the end of the day, we are all professional players and we know the situations well so there is no pressure in the side. "It is important to win this game in front of the home crowd and I am sure we will. All the boys want to give it a new start and we wish to do that way." Habsi added.
When asked as to why his boys continues to slide towards the last 10 minutes of the game, Le Guen said the players needs to be efficient to complete the 90minutes of football.
"They lack efficiency and that is why we slip away towards the end and give the other team the chance to score. That happened during the match against Japan recently. The fact that our League is not yet fully professional is the problem. It is also to do with the fitness of the players. I am sure we will learn from each game we play and correct our mistakes.
"Syria is a good team but a win against China has boosted our chances to start the tournament on a winning note," Le Guen added.
Oman team: Ali Al Habsi, Masin Al Kasbi, Fai Al Rashidi,Mohammed Al Musallami, Ali Al Jabri,Raeed Ibrahim, Eid Al Farsi, AbdulAzeez Muqbali, Qasim Said, Saad Suhail, Humaid Al Ghalaini,Yaqoob Abdulkarim, Hassan Mudhafar, Hussain Al Hadhari, Mohammed Al Mashari, Ali Salim, Juma Darwish, Abdulsalam Amor, Jabir Al Awasi, Ahmed Kanu, Fawzi Basheer, Ismail Al Ajmi and Imad Al Hosni.
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