Al Arabi coach Heimir Hallgrímsson
Al Arabi coach Heimir Hallgrímsson yesterday said that the Amir Cup tournament will be a new beginning for his team.
“It’s a new start, a new beginning. When I came in January, the league (QNB Stars League) was finished for Al Arabi more or less. So we’ve been trying do a lot of things, experimenting with new tactics. So hopefully we can show our best in this competition,” the former Iceland coach told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the draw ceremony of the Amir Cup yesterday.
Hallgrimsson, who took charge of the Al Arabi outfit after leaving the Iceland post and guiding his country to their first World Cup finals last year, signed a one-and-half-year contract with the Qatari Club which clinched the sixth spot in the QSL standings.
Hallgrimsson, 51, was not worried about Al Arabi’s performances during the QSL, but said his team will hopefully produce better performances.
“(Al Arabi’s performance during the QSL can be defined as) good and bad. Like life. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. But I think if we exclude the last game against Al Duhail, in which we lost 3-0, our performances were much better. Of course, Al Duhail is a much better side, but if we take that game out, we had a really good performance. Even during the three games against Al Rayyan, Al Gharafa and Al Ahli, which we lost, we played well. So I think our performance was good, but it didn’t produce enough wins. So hopefully during the Amir Cup, we can produce good performances and win,” Hallgrimsson said.
In their first match of the Amir Cup, Al Arabi, on April 26, will meet the winner of the second round clash between Al Shamal and Umm Salal.
“This is a tough competition. All the teams here in Qatar are very good like anywhere else. At one point, we will have to face them. So we are quite satisfied with the draw. In the end it is always going to be how well you play against the top teams,” Hallgrimsson said.
“During my stay here, my only job is to make Al Arabi a better team. At Al Arabi club, we take things very seriously. It’s a big club with a lot of history behind it. But Al Arabi has not won any big trophies for a long time. But we know it’s going to take time to change a whole lot. I like the people around the club. They are very ambitious and I think if we continue working like this, it won’t take a long time until Al Arabi fight for titles again,” Hallgrimsson, who is also a former dentist, said.
Asked if he has any new recruitments in mind, Hallgrimsson burst into laughs and said: “Yeah, but I’m not going to tell you.”
