UAE Olympic hopefuls fired up to honour Awana

Wednesday's last push in Tashkent for Olympic qualification will be for every UAE football fan but the team also wants to honour the memory of late player Diab Awana, according to close friend and captain Hamdan Al Kamali. Awana, who died in a car accident last September aged just 21 at the start of the qualifying campaign, was an integral part of the blossoming UAE youth outfit right from their U-17 Gulf Cup win in 2006 to the Asian Games silver in 2010. Just days before his death, he featured in the UAE's 0-0 away draw to Australia in the first game of the Olympic third-round qualifiers. But this final match in the group, six months on, will sadly begin without the Bani Yas winger, who found global acclaim for his back-heeled penalty flick against Lebanon in the World Cup qualifiers in July. Al Kamali, on loan from Al Wahda to French giants Olympique Lyonnais, said: "We all started together as a squad under Mahdi Ali seven years ago as U15s and our first success was with the 2008 Asia Cup. The players are all the same here now today barring Awana, the goalkeeper [Yousuf Abdul Rahman] and one defender [Ahmad Fayez]. "For sure it has been hard [since Awana's passing] but the players have to be professional. Our target is to do this for all our country. We have a good team now and even those called upon from the youth are able to play with all their hearts for this game because they know first-time Olympic qualification depends on it." Kamali added: "It will be difficult for both teams; we've worked hard — one month in training — to reach this moment and we hope to give our best to succeed and reach our goal and the people's dream. The players, staff and administration have all worked hard and we hope for a positive impact in this game."