Bahrain squad named for national team training

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa has named a 26-player squad that will kick off the senior men’s national football team’s latest training gathering in the Kingdom.

The nationals are scheduled to begin their on-field work tomorrow and wrap up on March 29.

They are scheduled to play three international friendly matches during this period, which they are using to prepare for their upcoming competitions, including the third round of qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

The roster features four of Bahrain’s top talents currently playing with overseas clubs, while the other 22 are from six local outfits.

The foreign-based Bahrain internationals are Ali Madan from Al Urooba in the UAE, Abdulla Hazaa and Ali Haram from Al Tadhamon in Kuwait, and Abdulla Yousef from Slovan Liberec in the Czech Republic.

From the local contingent, there are six players apiece from national league champions Riffa and AFC Cup title-holders Muharraq.

The Riffa standouts include Komail Al Aswad, Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Sayed Redha Isa, Jassim Al-Shaikh, Hamad Shamsan and Abdulla Efrih; while the Muharraq players are Abdulwahab Al Malood, Amine Hasan, Hamza Juban, Hasan Karrani, Waleed Al Hayam and veteran goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaafar. Four others are from Al Khaldiya, namely Ahmed Abdulla, Mahdi Humaidan, Mohammed Hardan and Sayed Dhiya Saeed.

There are three from Manama, including current Bahrain league top scorer Mahdi Abduljabbar, Ammar Abbas and Ebrahim Al Khattal. The line-up is completed by Abbas Ayyad from Al Ahli, and Abdulaziz Mohamed and Abdulla Hashash from Budaiya.

Bahrain's international friendlies during this training gathering are against India on March 23, Burundi on March 26 and Belarus on March 29.

Bahrain will be playing in the third round of qualification for the AFC Asian Cup 2023 this June.

They are in Group E along with Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia.

Their group’s games will be held at the Malaysian capital, and they will be played over a single round on three matchdays including June 8, 11 and 14.

The AFC Asian Cup is scheduled to kick off on June 16 next year in China.

Bahrain is looking to secure their seventh appearance in the tournament proper.

They first appeared in 1988, and have qualified for the last five tournaments in 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. The Bahrainis’ best finish in the competition was fourth in 2004.

They reached the last 16 in 2019 but did not make it past the group stage the other times.

Each of the six groups will be held at a centralised venue.

Group A will be hosted by Kuwait, Group B by Mongolia, Group C by Uzbekistan, Group D by India and Group F by the Kyrgyz Republic.