Futsal squad named for Asian futsal championship

TDT | Manama       

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s national futsal team head coach Lino Gomes named a 14-player squad that will be competing in the AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2022, which is set to kick off on Tuesday in Kuwait City.

The final roster includes Hamed Abdulla, Ahmed Moamed Antar, Ali Malwani, Ammar Hasan Mayhad, Falah Abbas, Hasan Ebrahim Marzooq, Jassam Saleh Anan, Mohamed Abdulla Ali, Mohamed Radhi Al Sandi, Saleh Ahmed, Salman Maula and goalkeepers Sayed Fadhel Radhi, Sayed Mohamed Hameed and Yusuf Abdulla Mohamed.

Gomes, from Brazil, has been gearing up the nationals for their upcoming competition over the past several weeks. They have already arrived in the Kuwaiti capital and are in their final preparations for the tournament.

Bahrain are one of 16 teams from across the continent taking part in the competition, which is being held for the 17th time. The Bahrainis are in Group B for the preliminary round alongside Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

There are four groups in all for the competition’s opening stage. Group A features hosts Kuwait, Iraq, Thailand and Oman; Group C comprises Iran, Lebanon, Chinese Taipei and Indonesia; and Group D includes Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

The nationals kick off their campaign against Tajikistan on the opening afternoon. They return to the court on Thursday against Turkmenistan, before playing their final fixture of the preliminaries against Uzbekistan on Saturday.

Each of the top two teams from all four groups move through to the quarter-finals following a single round-robin. The Bahrainis booked their tickets to this year’s Asian Cup after finishing second in their group in the West Zone qualifying tournament held last April in the UAE.

Gomes also helped guide the men’s team to the futsal bronze medal at the third GCC Games held in May. This year’s Asian Cup will mark the third time that Bahrain are participating. The nationals previously competed in 2002, when they could not make it past the first round, and then in 2018, when they advanced to the quarter-finals.