To ensure they have a fighting chance against the defending UFL champions and host country representatives on December 8 at Mohammad bin Zayed Stadium, Hekari are now training full-time and have appointed a new goalkeeping coach to work with their squad. The plan is to stop the likes of local hero Ismail Matar, and Brazilians Fernando Baiano and Hugo Henrique Asis do Nascimento from spoiling their dream.
South Africa-born Reaz Moorad took up the goalkeeping coach position with Hekari in September during a pre-season tour and began working with the club’s custodians immediately. He will continue working with the squad as the team from Port Moresby prepares for its FIFA debut.
“I’m really excited as I will be flying to Papua New Guinea this month and then we’ll have a training week in Qatar prior to the Club World Cup,” he says. “I now want to work full-time with a professional team. Through my time with Hekari, I have realised that I have a lot of information and experience and that I need a platform to pass this on.”
Moorad, who is also a New Zealand Football high performance goalkeeping coach, is lending the expertise gained from a brief coaching career in Durban and from international coaching courses. He currently holds the International Goalkeeper Coaching Licence obtained in 2004 from New Zealand Football.
Moorad was a goalkeeping coach for Manning Rangers in the late 1990s before he emigrated to Auckland, where he works as a national sales manager for Coca-Cola.
Hekari created football history when they became the first Pacific Island club from outside New Zealand or Australia to win the Oceania Champions League with a 4-2 aggregate win in the final over Kiwi side Waitakere United earlier this year, thus qualifying for the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2010 in the process.
HE Mohammed Khalfan Al Rumaithi, president of the UAE Football Association, believes no team should be underestimated at this year’s FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2010.
“We have seen in the past how some of the world’s strongest teams have suffered surprise losses to clubs with far less resources,” he says. “Hekari maybe a far less experienced team on the field but what it lacks in this area it makes up in passion and commitment.
“I think the match between Hekari and Al Wahda will be a very physical game as both clubs strive to achieve their goal of reaching the second round.”
Hekari opened their 2011 O-League campaign in disappointing fashion with a 2-1 loss at home against Vanuatu newcomers Amicale.
But they got the boost their confidence needed last weekend by posting a comprehensive 4-0 win over Koloale at Port Moresby in what will be their most meaningful outing before leaving for Abu Dhabi.
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