The head coach of the basketball team for Al-Nasr Club, Egyptian coach Hossam El-Wakeel, revealed three technical gains that «The Dean» achieved in its historic participation in the 35th Dubai Basketball Championship. The most prominent of these was «strong physical confrontations» that differ from the style of matches in the UAE league. Al-Nasr was eliminated from the tournament the day before yesterday, losing to the Tunisian «Etoile Sportive du Sahel» 68-93 in the quarter-finals. El-Wakeel described the team's participation as the best in the club's history in the tournament. El-Wakeel told «Emirates Today»: «We entered the tournament without three key players who were with the national team, which gave our young players a great opportunity to gain physical experience and face different styles of play, which contributed to raising the pace of the team's preparation for the final stages of the local league, competing for the title, and representing in regional competitions, especially the West Asian Super League, which is a qualifier for the Asian Champions League». He added: «The second gain was the increase in the team's chemistry, especially with the new foreign signings. Despite the absences, we managed to achieve our best result in the history of our participation in the Dubai championship and reach the quarter-finals». El-Wakeel also pointed to the third gain: the experience gained from playing under pressure, which was clearly evident in the match against the Syrian «Homs Al-Fada» at the end of the group stage, where the team turned a five-point deficit into a one-point win, 101-100. El-Wakeel concluded his remarks by thanking the club's management for their continuous support in developing young talent and providing opportunities to participate at a high level, which has helped polish the players' skills and qualify them, in addition to many of them currently being in the national team squad.
