Bahrain women’s futsal team to kick off Thai tournament

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s women’s national futsal team are set to take on some of the continent’s top teams in a six-nation competition kicking off today in Thailand.

The nationals have left for Bangkok for the NSDF Women’s Futsal Championship 2023, which will host matches at the Terminal 21 Shopping Centre in Nakhon Ratchasima Province.

Bahrain is one of five national teams taking part; the others are Japan, China, Indonesia and hosts Thailand. The sixth squad are Capital Futsal Team from Australia.

The Bahrainis are in Group A with the Thais and Aussies.

Group B features the Japanese, Chinese and Indonesians. Bahrain head coach Lino Gomes from Brazil has named a 14-player squad for the tournament.

They include skipper Yasmeen Fayez, Manar Ebrahim, Shaikha Al Anood Al Khalifa, Hessa Al Issa, Rose Fayez, Amira Bader, Fatima Hamad, Dalal Abdulla, Zahra Nezar, Kholoud Saleh, Lilia Javed, Maryam Abdulla, Iman Ramadan and Rawan Al Ali.

The nationals kick off their campaign tomorrow against Capital Futsal Team, before taking on Thailand the following day.

At the end of the preliminary stage round-robin, the top two teams advance to the semi-finals. Bahrain are one of the leading women’s futsal squads in the region.

Last year, they claimed third place overall in the West Asian Football Federation Women’s Futsal Championship held in Saudi Arabia, where Iraq took the gold and Saudi claimed the silver medals.