Sousa upbeat ahead of Haiti friendly
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa is looking forward to “good experience” for the senior men’s national football team when take on Haiti tonight in an international friendly match in the Kingdom.
The game is part of the Bahrainis’ preparations for their upcoming competitions, which includes the FIFA Arab Cup this December.
It is scheduled for a 7pm kick-off at the National Stadium in Riffa. Speaking in his pre-match Press conference yesterday, Sousa said that Bahrain will greatly benefit from their match with Haiti.
“It is an opportunity for us to keep building our team and keep growing,” he said. “It is good to have Haiti here in Bahrain. They are a good team with many players playing around the world, so it is going to be a good experience for us. “It will also be a good game for our FIFA World Ranking.
Haiti is 83rd, around 10 places above us, and although the ranking doesn’t say everything, it gives a good picture of what they have been doing over the past year.”
Also ahead of today’s contest, a technical meeting was held yesterday attended by officials from the Bahrain Football Association and both Bahrain’s and Haiti’s national teams. It was determined during the meeting that Bahrain will wear their white kits in the game while Haiti will wear their blue uniforms.
The warm-up is set to be the first of two exhibition matches during this current training period for Bahrain. The nationals also take on Jordan on Tuesday next week.
Head coach Helio Sousa has been running daily practices with 23 players. They include Abbas Alasfoor, Sayed Hashim Isa, Hazza Ali, Jassim Al Shaikh, Kumail Al Aswad, Mohammed Marhoon, Sayed Redha Isa, and Sayed Mahdi Baqer from Riffa; Sayed Mohamed Jaffar, Waleed Al Hayam and Rashed Alhooti from Muharraq; Ahmed Bughammar, Ebrahim Lutfallah, Sayed Dhiya Saeed and Mahdi Humaidan from Al Khaldiya; Jassim Khulaif and Mohamed Al Rumaihi from East Riffa; Mohammed Abdulwahab from Al Ahli; Ahmed Merza from Hidd; Mohamed Al Shaikh from Malkiya; Abdulla Hazza and Ali Haram from Kuwaiti club Al Tadhamon SC; and Ali Madan from UAE outfit Al Urooba.
The FIFA Arab Cup 2021 will be held in Doha, with the participation of 16 national teams. It will kick off on November 30 and continue until December 18.
Bahrain are in Group A, which also features hosts Qatar, Iraq and Oman. After the tournament’s opening stage, which comprises four groups of four teams each, the top two from each group move on to the knockout quarter-finals. The tournament is being delivered by FIFA as a prelude to the FIFA World Cup 2022.
It is seen as a vital opportunity to test operations and facilities ahead of next year’s global showcase. The FIFA Arab Cup will take place in the same time slot as the World Cup, with the finals of both competitions to be held exactly one year apart.
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