Olympic team set up three international friendlies

TDT | Manama     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s under-23 Olympic football team have set up three international friendly matches next week as they intensify their overseas training camp programme in Bangkok.

The Bahrainis had already played three exhibition games this past week, two against Thai clubs and one against their counterparts from Kuwait. They have now set up a few additional games, first against the Thailand Olympic team on Saturday, then against Timor- Leste the following evening, and finally against Vietnam on Tuesday next week.

The nationals, coached by Dario Basic of Croatia, are currently in their camp preparing for their upcoming qualifiers for the 2024 AFC U23 Asian Cup, scheduled to take place next month.

This training period is scheduled to continue until 16 August. The under-23s have a 28-player squad at their camp, including Mustafa Al Salem, Omar Saber, Hussein Harouneh, Hussein Abdulkarim, Abdulla Freih, Ahmed Dia, Abdulla Al Subaie, Abdulrahman Al Obaidly, Adel Al Rumaihi, Saleh Al Zubaidi, Mubarak Mohammed, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Salman Abdulla, Mohammed Abdul Qayyum, Ahmed Kamel, Khalifa Al Lafi, Salman Adel, Khalil Ebrahim, Ahmed Musalam, Hassan Issa, Ali Mohammed Redha, Ahmed Abdulhameed, Hussein Al Aker, Hassan Abdulnabi, Yasseen Karim, Salem Al Dosari, Salem Hussein and Sayed Jawad Haider.

Bahrain’s group matches in the qualifiers are set to be held in the Kingdom. The nationals are in Group D with Japan, Palestine and Pakistan. There are 11 groups in all, with 10 comprising four nations and one featuring three. Each group will host their matches at a centralised venue.

Bahrain have qualified just once in the previous five editions of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup. That was in the 2020 event held in Thailand, when they did not make it past the group stage.