Qatar National Olympic Team Head Coach, Felix Sanchez.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Qatar National Olympic Team Head Coach, Felix Sanchez talks about the team’s performance in the recently concluded WAFF Championship and also the team’s readiness for the prestigious Asian Cup in January 2016. Here are excerpts from the interview

How vital was featuring in the recently concluded WAFF championship for your preparation plans for the Asian Cup, and what are your plans to reach maximum readiness before the awaited event?
For us, to play WAFF tournament was important to see the level of each player as an individual and the level of the team at this stage under the pressure of the competition without much time to prepare and work as a team. To see the level of the team in a competition was very useful for us to prepare for the next period, which is still some months from today. We have not been together as a team for much time, so it is important the players from different generations know each other and develop basic team cohesiveness.

How many friendlies are scheduled to further prepare the squad leading up to the tournament? And which teams will you play?
We plan to play three friendly games in November against UAE, Australia and Ivory Coast in December in our training camp in Spain we will play against Serbia. At the end of December in Doha we will play against Uzbekistan and Yemen. Then at the beginning of January and before the start of the U23 Asian Cup we will play two friendly games in Turkey against national teams which are still to be confirmed.

Should we expect any significant changes to the team’s roster before the Asian Championship?
We are not expecting significant changes from the players who have been with us in these initial training camps and in the WAFF competition. Of course, hoping for no injuries and anticipating availability of players who no longer have World Cup qualifiers. From this group we will end with the final list of 23 players.

Did the cancellation of the GCC championship in Bahrain affect the squad’s progress before the tournament?
It doesn’t have any negative impact in our preparation. With the QFA we had prepared in advance a training camp in Doha with 3 strong friendly games to continue our preparation. It has been very important that the QFA has put a lot of effort and support to prepare and organise the training camps and games we have needed during this initial period.

How satisfied are you with your players’ current performance in the league? Do you think they are getting enough playing minutes with their respective teams?
We are watching the games of the players in their clubs every week, I think they are trying hard and getting better. About the minutes they are playing, this is obviously, a decision that the technical staff in the clubs have to make.

How do you keep track of your Europe based players?
We are getting reports from each player every week and watching games each weekend. Nowadays and with the availability of technology we can get games and analysis from all our players after the weekend contests.
We also visit the clubs in Europe to get feedback from the clubs there, their coaches and the players and have the opportunity to watch them live in training and games.

What do you think of your opponents in Group A? And how would you rate Qatar’s chances of advancing to the knockout stage?
I think in this tournament it doesn’t matter in what group you are, you can have preferences but all the teams are really strong. Obviously our group, I would say, will be very strong and I think the level will be very close, very contested.  We will try to be effective, play to our strengths, to be able to qualify for the next stage.  
We are looking forward to playing a good tournament and I am sure the squad will perform as a team, where everyone supports each other.
What are the lessons taken from the World Cup and how does it reflect on the boys?
An experience like that, I am sure it helps the players to improve in all aspects and make them better players, better teammates.
They have experience competing against the best teams in the world. Obviously only some of the players, the youngest in the team, participated in the World Cup and it was a very positive experience for them.
It helped them to be prepared to face a strong competition now, the Asian Cup, where there will be also an age difference between many of them and the opposition. But we don’t have to forget that there are other players in this team who didn’t play the World Cup and also they will have the opportunity in the next Asian U23 Championship to show their qualities and years of professional experience in the QSL. They will be very important for the performance of the team.

Your final massage and to whom?
To people in Qatar, if people come to the stadium to support the team I am sure we will be stronger, I am sure the players will do their best for their country.