Eastern European coaches get chance to shine in Asian Cup

DOHA: The Asian Cup may be about determining which is the best team on the continent, but much of the tactical nous is likely to come from the former Soviet bloc and what was Yugoslavia.

Of the 16 teams in Doha, half have foreigners in charge – with coaches from Eastern Europe playing a particularly prominent role.

Slovenian Srecko Katanec has impressed in fashioning an up-and-coming United Arab Emirates team that find themselves in a tough-looking Group D that also comprises giants Iran, holders Iraq and World Cup finalists North Korea.

But the wily 47-year-old knows what it’s like to take a relative minnow to a major international tournament.

The former Sampdoria and Stuttgart defender led Slovenia to the European Championships in 2000 and the 2002 World Cup.

“The Emirates have a very good coach in Srecko Katanec but I don’t think they are favourites to go through, even though they have some good young players,” said Bora Milutinovic.

Veteran Serb Milutinovic has taken charge of five countries – including China – at the World Cup and has extensive experience in Asia and the Middle East, paving the way for the current influx of foreign coaches in the region.

If the technically adept Katanec – who represented the former Yugoslavia before its collapse – needs all his acumen to get UAE out of Group D, Tita Valeriu faces a similarly unenviable task with Syria.

The Romanian has been in charge just a month after Serbian Ratomir Dujkovic’s shock departure. The French-speaking Tita, who has been borrowed from Syrian club Al Ittihad, said not speaking Arabic presented little problem.

“It’s true that I am Romanian, but I’ve been in Syria for four years,” he said. “But I always find a way to have a connection with all the players in Syria.”

Proving the point, he led Al Ittihad to the 2010 AFC Cup title with an impressive victory over Al Qadsia in Kuwait and on Sunday masterminded Syria’s shock 2-1 defeat of the mighty Saudi Arabia in their Asian Cup opener.

Goran Tufegdzic, a Serbian, has been widely credited with inspiring Kuwait to their best period in years, overseeing victorious campaigns in the West Asian Football Federation Championship and the 2010 Gulf Cup of Nations.

But the 39-year-old’s association with Kuwait goes back far longer than that, having first worked in the Gulf state in 2002, when he was an assistant to Mohamed Ibrahim at Al Qadsia.

“With Kuwait, I’m so happy to see a Serbian coach doing well and I think it shows the capacity Serbian coaches have to build a team,” said Milutinovic.

However, Tufegdzic’s men lost their Group A opener on Saturday, having a man sent off and going down 2-0 to China’s new generation.

Perhaps the most likely of the contingent to taste glory in Doha will be Vadim Abramov, coach of his native Uzbekistan, who beat hosts Qatar 2-0 in the opening match on Friday.

Abramov, who has been in the job since spring, has put together what some pundits are calling the best Uzbek team in a decade.