The coach revealed the national team d. Munir bin Habib, that the Lebanese international star Fadi Al-Khatib scored 148 points in the Dubai International Basketball Championship, which is unveiled today at Al-Ahly Youth Hall, confirming the national team’s need for a player on the pitch, especially that Al-Khatib (41 years) scored an average of 28.4 points in One game.

Al-Khatib represented the national team in the championship, and deposited it the day before yesterday with a loss against Sala Al-Maghribi in the quarter-final, with a difference of five points with a score of «80-85».

Bin Al Habib told «Emirates Today» that: “The presence of a professional player the size of Fadi Al-Khatib with the Emirates team in the Dubai basket revealed the need for Al-Abyad to have a player with great experiences capable of using them in the optimal way in the interest of the team, not only in terms of scoring points, but also In controlling the rhythm of attacks alongside the defensive role, especially since the team’s image and levels presented in the current version were completely different from the ones he appeared in during his participation in the Dubai basket for the past years ».

He added: “Fadi Al-Khatib entered Salé, suffering from a knee injury, except that his prejudice to the injury and his success in providing the required harmony between the elements of the team, especially on the defensive side, was behind the ability to give Al-Abyad progress throughout the stages of the match, before losing in the last moments in light of the success The Moroccan team in distributing the physical effort to its entire elements throughout the stages of the game that was in its interest with the decisive moments, which were matched by the occurrence of our players under the pressure of physical stress imposed by us entering the match originally with impressive absences due to injury to basic elements the size of the playmaker Talal Salem and the player Al-Antekaz Jassim Mohammed » .

He explained: «We were the best party throughout the quarter-final stages, and we managed to advance by eight points until the sixth minute of the last period, except that the strength of the physical impulse that is characterized by players of Salé and the inability to keep up with it in the last moments in light of limited options for our bench bench, All of them were in the interest of the Moroccan team, which succeeded in reversing its delay and resolving the match in its last moments, in a match that also saw Fadi Al-Khatib crowning the best record in which he scored with 34 points. He continued, "Al-Khatib's participation with the national team as a professional player is a message addressed to the country's clubs, that the doors of the national team are open to foreign professionals, especially since the federation addressed the clubs prior to the current participation, before the latter went to apologize for pushing its professionals to be with the national team."

He continued: “The experiences drawn from the national team’s participation in the current edition of the Dubai Championship were represented by the extent of Al-Abyad’s need in his upcoming entitlements to the role of the leader on the field, in the same way that Fadi Al-Khatib, despite reaching the age of 41, motivated the Al-Abyad players to draw their best performance. And motivate them permanently, and lead them to win the group league on teams the size and runners-up of the Arab champions Beirut Beirut, and the ancient Syrian Aleppo Union ».

He concluded: «Great experiences gained by the players of the team, especially the youth, as a result of playing alongside a player who has the expertise of Al-Khatib, which we are looking forward to in the future with the addition of other professionals to the white list, especially since the laws of the country are now allowing naturalization of players and searching for elements that serve the national teams, and address The shortage of certain centers. ”

Mighty Filipino in the final

The Mighty Sport team reached the final of the Dubai International Basketball Championship, yesterday, by defeating Sala Al-Maghribi, by 80-76, in their match at Al-Ahly Youth Club in Dubai, in the first semi-final matches of the tournament.

Maiti decided his qualification for the final by obtaining his players the advantage of the results of the first and third periods by (25-25 and 22-21), while the players of Sale were content to impose a tie with the result of the second period (19-19), and the advantage of the fourth period (21-14) that was not sufficient for them to return The outcome of the match.

In the final match that starts at 8:00 pm, Mighty faces the winner of the Lebanese athlete meeting with his compatriot Hobbs, which was held late last night.

- The team made strong offers in the championship, but bid farewell to the quarter-finals against Sala Al-Maghribi.