The Arabian Gulf League started well and with a technical level that may herald the appearance of many teams from last season, where there were no significant differences between the teams, especially the candidates to compete for the title of the league and those that are always in the struggle for relegation, where embarrassed Al Kalba Al Ain, which won hard In the last few seconds, Fujairah also suffered a loss to Al Wahda, who had confirmed that the league title is the basis for the team, but there are 25 games inside the green rectangle, and the referee at the level of teams and their ability to compete is still early.
The start confirms that Khorfakkan, Ittihad Kalba, Fujairah and Hatta will not be the guests of honor, despite the loss of Hatta three, but he did a good performance, especially in the first half and was a strong match for Al Ahli youth, while confidence in the feet of Khorfakkan team playing defending champions Sharjah. Union of Kalba Foreign players, especially seasoned Yassin al-Bakhit, and Fujairah emerged quite differently from last season, scoring the first three points with a 1-0 win over Al-Wahda.
Al Ain did not offer what the crowd expected from the technical level, and it was confirmed that the absence of Caillou, will be effective in the team as he did not appear in the squad because of injury, to find the team difficult to penetrate the defense of Kalba, but saved himself in the final seconds to win.
The Al Wasl and Al Nasr derby was not bad as it ended in a negative result, but there was a cautious and tactic of coaches from the beginning, where Al Wasl took the initiative in the first half, and during the second half succeeded in winning the ball and attack in a game that witnessed a distinguished public presence.
The tour saw the first appearance of player Omar Abdulrahman, Al-Jazira shirt after his participation in the second half and received a large audience of fans, and presented a number of technical touches with the other talented Khalfan Mubarak, both of whom were on the bench and participated in the second half.
The UAE Today monitored a question about the opinion of the public on the start of the Arab Gulf League, on the social networking site «Twitter»: «We shared the opinion .. How do you see the start of the Arab Gulf League and the first appearance of teams nominated to compete for the title of the championship», and three responses were spotted, "Good level, far from expectations, difficult to judge in the first round."
49% of the 420 respondents said it was difficult to judge from the first round, 28% said the level was good, and 23% said the level was far from expectations.
"The first round was better than previous seasons, despite the absence of surprises," Khalid Al Obaid, a former sports team manager and manager of Al Nasr, told Emirates Today.
He added: «Fujairah and Union Kalba have been very good despite the loss of Kalba undeserved, but embarrassed the eye at home and provided a balanced playing style between defense and attack and distinguished foreigners with field experience in the transition from defense to attack individual skill and good support from the rest of the team. At the Dubai derby, we expected a better level of both teams, especially in performance and goals, and we wait for the next two weeks, so that the technical opinion is more clear ».
To see the top scorers and standings after the first round, please click on this link.