Al Jazira coach Marcel Keizer speaks during a press conference.

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Al Jazira coach Marcel Keizer sounded optimistic about the availability of the defender Mohamed Al Attas against Ittihad Kalba in their 16th round match of the Arabian Gulf League (AGL) on Sunday.

Apprising about the prospect of the defender returning to the fold along with Brandley Kuwas, Keizer said he expects the duo to be fit for the crucial match.

“Al Attas is getting more fit. He did well during the 60 minutes he played against Al Dhafra and he is training well now, and I expect him to be ready for Kalba. We will keep an eye on him and take the final decision about him on Sunday,” said Kiezer.

“Everyone else is available for the game and the training sessions are going very well. The team is in a good mood after the positive results against Al Nasr and Al Dhafra,” he added.

Praising Kalba, who have shown a great resurgence of late, Kiezer predicted a tough game but vowed to go into the match with a positive approach.

“We know it’s going to be tough against Kalba. Their defence is very strong and have very good players in their line-up. But we will go there with belief in ourselves and give our best to return with a positive result,” said informed.

The coach also downplayed the title talks of Al Jazira, who are at the second spot behind Sharjah with 33 points.

“Al Jazira will not commit the mistake of thinking about the standings or winning title now. It is a long way to go. We only think about next game, and the next game now is against Kalba,” concluded Keizer.

Kuwas stressed he is only focusing on the next match against Kalb and does not bother himself with what critics say or whatever was written about him in social media.

“I don’t bother myself with what people said or wrote about me in the past. I only think about Al Jazira and focusing only on doing my best for the club. The competition for the starting eleven is intense because of the high quality of the players, and I need to do my best in every training session to earn the trust of the coach and play and help the team.”

In the derby of the day, Al Wasl will meet Al Nasr at Al Maktoum Stadium.

Al Nasr coach Krunoslav Jurcic stressed the importance of the match for the two teams and explained how the technical staff used time to get to know the players and work with them to prepare them well for the upcoming match.

“Al Wasl have shown a great resilience we will try to exploit our home ground factor and put up a good performance to achieve positive result,” said Jurcic.

“Our mission is to continue achieving positive results in the upcoming matches because it is the only way to continue the winning momentum.

So our current goal is to win the derby, especially since we won the last round of the league,” he added.