{"id":18895,"date":"2014-10-13T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T09:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/yas-island-says-gday-to-socceroos\/"},"modified":"2014-10-13T09:41:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T09:41:00","slug":"yas-island-says-gday-to-socceroos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2014\/10\/yas-island-says-gday-to-socceroos\/","title":{"rendered":"Yas Island Says G\u2019day to Socceroos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"unnamed<\/a>The\u00a0Australian National Football team received a warm Arabian \u2018G\u2019day\u2019 from some of the most colourful characters in Abu Dhabi this week, as they jetted into the emirate for an international friendly game against the United Arab Emirates (UAE).<\/span><\/span>

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The Socceroos were welcomed to the emirate\u2019s entertainment hub of Yas Island and the team\u2019s hotel, the iconic, five-star Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi \u2013 the only hotel in the world to straddle a Formula One track –\u00a0 by mascots from Yas Island\u2019s award-winning theme park aqua park Yas Waterworld.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Yas Waterworld\u2019s adventure-seeking heroine Dana brought along her mischievous little brother Sultan\u00a0 to turn on the Arabian charm and greet Socceroos star Tim Cahill and his team mates.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The team from Down Under is in Abu Dhabi to play against the UAE on October 10th<\/sup>\u00a0at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, home of Al-Jazira Sports Club, with the game serving as excellent preparation for both teams for the upcoming AFC Asian Cup, which Australia is hosting in January, 2015.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re expecting a tough game against one of the strongest teams in Asia at present,\u201d\u00a0said Socceroos star man Cahill, who plays for the New York Red Bulls in the MLS. \u201cIn terms of our preparations for the AFC Asian Cup, this match will be a valuable exercise.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cWe hope to go very far in January, particularly with the AFC Asian Cup being played on home soil. If we are to be successful then, teams like UAE are among those that we\u2019ll need to beat, so in that sense, it\u2019s crucial that we make the most of the occasion on Friday.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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And after meeting the friendly characters from Yas Waterworld, Cahill was keen make plans to return to the emirate after the crucial encounter against the UAE was over.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cAbu Dhabi is an amazing place and we\u2019re very lucky to be staying at such a unique hotel on Yas Island,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, we are here as a team to prepare for a match, but on the occasions that we have been in transit around Abu Dhabi, it is obvious that there is lots to do around the city. It looks to be a place that would be nice to return to with my family one day.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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The game, which is free of charge and will kick-off at 6:30pm, is expected to attract fans from all across the Emirates to the UAE capital, with Australian Ambassador to the UAE and Qatar, HE Pablo Kang saying anticipation of the game is mounting.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cI am excited to watch the Socceroos take on the UAE side, as are many of the 16,000 Australians residing in the UAE,\u201d he said. \u201cThe game will be a good pre-cursor to the Asian Football Cup. The UAE and many other countries from the region will also participate in the AFC and we look forward to welcoming them to our sunny shores.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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Kate Campbell, Sales and Marketing director at du Forum, Yas Island and a fervent footie fan originally from New South Wales, is also looking forward to seeing her country\u2019s sporting prowess up close-and-personal.<\/span><\/div>\n

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“I\u2019m super excited to see the Socceroos play in Abu Dhabi,\u201d she said. \u201cI really hope all of the Aussies in the UAE come out to support them. I have family visiting from Sydney so it will be a great opportunity for them to see the team play abroad, especially as we are all huge Socceroos fans!\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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The Australian team, ranked 84th<\/sup>\u00a0in world football governing body FIFA\u2019s rankings, 11 places below the UAE, come into the game off the back of an impressive World Cup campaign earlier this year, where the team performed heroically in a tough group containing Spain, Chile and the Netherlands, before being knocked out in the group stages.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The Socceroos vs the UAE is being supported by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, in co-ordination with Yas Island. For more information regarding the Socceroos head to\u00a0http:\/\/www.socceroos.com.au\/.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Australian National Football team received a warm Arabian \u2018G\u2019day\u2019 from some of the most colourful characters in Abu Dhabi this week, as they jetted into the emirate for an international friendly game against the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Socceroos were welcomed to the emirate\u2019s entertainment hub of Yas Island and the team\u2019s hotel, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}