Bahrain national football team

Bahrain
Nickname(s)	Al-Ahmar (The Red)
Association	Bahrain Football Association
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Head coach	Milan Máčala
Most caps	Abdulrazzaq Mohamed (102)
Top scorer	Husain Ali (31)
Home stadium	Bahrain National Stadium
FIFA code	BHR
FIFA ranking	60
Highest FIFA ranking	44 (September 2004)
Lowest FIFA ranking	139 (March 2000)
Elo ranking	T 52
Highest Elo ranking	49 (September 2009)
Lowest Elo ranking	138 (March 1979)
Home colours	Away colours
First international
	Bahrain 4 - 4 Kuwait ; (Baghdad, Iraq; April 2, 1966)
Biggest win
	Bahrain 5 - 0 Kyrgyzstan ; (Bahrain; June 9, 2004); Bahrain 5 - 0 Turkmenistan ; (Bahrain; 3 August 2005)
Biggest defeat
	Iraq 10 - 1 Bahrain ; (Baghdad, Iraq; April 6, 1966)
AFC Asian Cup
Appearances	3 (First in 1988)
Best result	Fourth place, 2004

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The Bahraini national football team (Arabic: البحريني لكرة القدم‎) is the national team of the Kingdom of Bahrain and is controlled by the Bahrain Football Association. They have never made the World Cup, but have improved greatly during the past few years. Bahrain won the FIFA's most improved team award in 2004, and finished fourth in the 2004 Asian Cup. The international team was founded in 1951 and joined FIFA in 1966.

Bahrain finished fourth in the 2004 Asian Cup in a very surprising run, beating Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals but losing to Japan in the semi-finals in an exciting encounter which ended 4-3 to Japan, where Bahrain were leading several times. Bahrain then lost to Iran in the third place match, therefore finishing fourth place overall.

After Uzbekistan and Bahrain both finished third in their groups during the World Cup 2006 qualifiers, October 12, 2005, Bahrain entered a two-legged playoff with Uzbekistan, which they won due to away goals with an aggregate score of 1-1. This win allowed Bahrain to enter another two-legged playoff with the fourth placed CONCACAF nation, (Trinidad and Tobago), for a spot in the World Cup. But a 0-1 Bahrain loss in Manama after a 1-1 draw in Port of Spain saw the CONCACAF nation go through, which was greeted with both anger and sadness by Bahraini fans.

Bahrain played in group D in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification group games. Bahrain fielded a side which was essentially the Olympic (under 23) team against Australia, and they lost 2-0. Bahrain qualified for the Asian Cup 2007 after defeating Kuwait in their last match. Bahrain were knocked out in the group stages via two losses against Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, despite a win against Korea Republic.

On January 6, 2007, Bahrain faced Internazionale in a friendly match which they lost 6-1. Despite the result, the event was greeted with enthusiasm by the whole country.^{[citation needed]}

In the third round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Bahrain were drawn into group B along with Japan, Oman, and Thailand. They went on a great run, with wins against all three teams. They drew Oman 1-1 at home and finished second overall to qualify to the final round.

Having reached the final round, Bahrain finished third place overall in their group, below Australia and Japan, but above Uzbekistan and Qatar. In the 2nd leg of the playoff against Saudi Arabia to decide Asia's fifth best team, Bahrain drew 2-2 with Saudi Arabia after scoring a stunning equaliser in stoppage time which made them go through on away goals, after drawing their home leg 0-0. They went on to play New Zealand in the final playoff in which the victor would qualify for the World Cup. They had hoped to become the smallest country to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2010, succeeding Trinidad and Tobago for the title. However Bahrain failed to capitalize on home ground advantage with a goalless draw in Manama on 10 October 2009 with several opportunities left begging. That was to prove costly as on 14 November 2009, Bahrain lost the return leg 1-0 in Wellington, suffering the heartbreak of missing out on qualification at the last hurdle for the second time running.

The Bahrian national football team playing Australia on June 10, 2009 in a World Cup qualifier

[edit] World Cup record

[edit] 2010 Qualification

[edit] Round 1

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st Leg	2nd Leg
Bahrain	4-1	Malaysia	4-1	0-0

[edit] Round 3

[edit] Group 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Japan	6	4	1	1	12	3	+9	13
Bahrain	6	3	2	1	7	5	+2	11
Oman	6	2	2	2	5	7	−2	8
Thailand	6	0	1	5	5	14	−9	1


Bahrain	–	1 – 0	1 – 1	1 – 1
Japan	1 – 0	–	3 – 0	4 – 1
Oman	0 – 1	1 – 1	–	2 – 1
Thailand	2 – 3	0 – 3	0 – 1	–

[edit] Round 4

[edit] Group A

Team v • d • e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Australia	8	6	2	0	12	1	+11	20
Japan	8	4	3	1	11	6	+5	15
Bahrain	8	3	1	4	6	8	−2	10
Qatar	8	1	3	4	5	14	−9	6
Uzbekistan	8	1	1	6	5	10	−5	4


Australia	–	2 – 0	2 – 1	4 – 0	2 – 0
Bahrain	0 – 1	–	2 – 3	1 – 0	1 – 0
Japan	0 – 0	1 – 0	–	1 – 1	1 – 1
Qatar	0 – 0	1 – 1	0 – 3	–	3 – 0
Uzbekistan	0 – 1	0 – 1	0 – 1	4 – 0	–

[edit] Playoff Round 1

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	(a)2-2	Saudi Arabia	0-0	2-2

[edit] Playoff Round 2

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	0-1	New Zealand	0-0	0-1

[edit] FIFA World Cup (AFC) Qualification Records

FIFA World Cup Asian Qualification Records
Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1930 to 1974	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Did not qualify	4	1	0	3	4	6
1982	Did not qualify	4	1	0	3	1	6
1986	Did not qualify	4	1	2	1	8	6
1990	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did not qualify	8	3	3	2	9	6
1998	Did not qualify	4	1	0	3	3	9
2002	Did not qualify	14	7	4	3	17	13
2006	Did not qualify	16	5	6	5	21	14
2010	Did not qualify	20	7	7	6	19	17
Total		74	26	22	26	82	77

[edit] Asian Competitions History

[edit] AFC Asian Cup record

[edit] Final records

Asian Cup
Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1956 to 1968	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Withdrew after qualifying	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1988	Round 1	4	0	2	2	1	3
1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Fourth place	6	1	3	2	13	14
2007	Round 1	3	1	0	2	3	7
2011	To Play	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	3/14	13	2	5	6	17	24

[edit] AFC Qualification records

Asian Cup
Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1956 to 1968	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Withdrew after qualifying	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1988	Qualified	4	0	2	2	1	3
1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Did not qualify	6	3	0	3	6	6
2004	Qualified	6	4	1	1	14	9
2007	Qualified	4	1	1	2	3	6
2011	To Play	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	3/6	16	8	2	6	23	21

[edit] Regional Tournaments

[edit] Gulf Cup of Nations

Gulf Cup of Nations record

Gulf Cup of Nations
Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1970	2/4	3	1	1	1	3	4
1972	Record Annulled	-	-	-	-	-	-
1974	5/6	2	0	0	2	1	8
1976	4/7	6	3	0	3	9	15
1979	4/7	6	2	2	2	8	9
1982	2/6	5	3	1	1	10	7
1984	5/7	6	1	2	3	3	6
1986	5/7	6	1	4	1	4	5
1988	4/7	6	3	0	3	4	4
1990	3/5	4	1	2	1	1	1
1992	2/6	5	3	0	2	6	4
1994	3/6	5	1	3	1	5	6
1996	5/6	5	0	2	3	4	8
1998	5/6	5	0	3	2	3	6
2002	4/6	5	1	2	2	4	6
2003	2/7	6	4	1	1	13	3
2004	3/8	5	2	2	1	10	6
2007	4/8	4	1	1	2	4	5
2009	Group Stage	3	1	0	2	3	4
Total	Best: 2nd	87	28	26	33	95	107

[edit] Arab Nations Cup

Arab Nations Cup record

Arab Nations Cup
Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1963 and 1964	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	5/5	4	0	1	3	7	22
1985	Runner Up	4	1	2	1	4	3
1988	Group Stage	4	0	3	1	2	3
1992	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Runner Up	6	3	1	2	8	5
2009	Qualifications-on going	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	Best: Runner Up	18	4	7	7	21	33

[edit] Coaches

Name	Nat	Period	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	Honours
Wolfgang Didka		? – April 2003
Yves Herbet		May 2003 – ?
Srecko Juricic		?– March 2005
Wolfgang Didka		April 2005 –

[edit] Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification against New Zealand on November 14 2009.

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Sayed Mohammed Jaffer	25 August 1985 (1985-08-25) (age 24)	34	0	Al-Muharraq
2	DF	Mohamed Husain	31 July 1980 (1980-07-31) (age 29)	61	6	Umm-Salal
3	DF	Ahmed Taleb	29 March 1980 (1980-03-29) (age 29)	33	4	Manama Club
4	MF	Abdulla Baba Fatadi	2 November 1985 (1985-11-02) (age 24)	23	4	Neuchatel Xamax
5	MF	Mohamed Hubail	23 June 1981 (1981-06-23) (age 28)	58	5	Al-Ahli
6	FW	Jaycee John	8 October 1985 (1985-10-08) (age 24)	24	3	R.E. Mouscron
7	MF	Sayed Mahmood Jalal	5 November 1980 (1980-11-05) (age 29)	82	4	Al-Muharraq
8	DF	Ebrahim Al Mishkhas	7 July 1980 (1980-07-07) (age 29)	14	1	Al-Muharraq
9	MF	Hussain Salman	20 December 1982 (1982-12-20) (age 27)	25	1	Al-Riffa
10	MF	Mohamed Salmeen	4 November 1980 (1980-11-04) (age 29)	90	7	Al Dhafra
11	FW	Ismael Abdullatif	11 September 1986 (1986-09-11) (age 23)	30	8	Al-Riffa
12	MF	Fouzi Ayesh	27 February 1985 (1985-02-27) (age 24)	37	3	Al-Sailiya
13	MF	Mahmood Abdulrahman	22 November 1984 (1984-11-22) (age 25)	34	6	Al-Muharraq
14	DF	Salman Isa	12 July 1977 (1977-07-12) (age 32)	93	14	Al-Arabi
15	MF	Abdullah Omar	1 January 1987 (1987-01-01) (age 23)	34	2	Neuchatel Xamax
16	DF	Sayed Mohamed Adnan	5 February 1983 (1983-02-05) (age 26)	62	8	Al-Khor
17	DF	Hussain Ali Baba	11 February 1982 (1982-02-11) (age 27)	55	0	Al-Shabab
18	GK	Abbas Ahmed Khamis	13 June 1983 (1983-06-13) (age 26)	5	0	Al-Ahli

[edit] Recent Call Ups

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
--	GK	Ali Hasan	16 August 1972 (1972-08-16) (age 37)	30	0	Al-Muharraq
--	GK	Abdulrahman Abdulkarim	13 May 1980 (1980-05-13) (age 29)	21	0	Al-Najma
--	DF	Jasim Al Malood	6 October 1987 (1987-10-06) (age 22)			Al-Najma
--	DF	Rashed Isa Alallan	27 November 1987 (1987-11-27) (age 22)	4	0	Bahrain
--	DF	Abdulla Al Marzooqi	12 December 1980 (1980-12-12) (age 29)	67	5	Al-Kuwait
--	DF	Abbas Ayyad	11 May 1987 (1987-05-11) (age 22)	6	0	Al-Ahli
--	MF	Hamad Rakea Al Anezi	22 April 1984 (1984-04-22) (age 25)	13	1	Al-Riffa
--	MF	Talal Yusuf	24 February 1975 (1975-02-24) (age 34)	70	19	Al-Riffa
--	MF	Rashid Al-Dosari	24 March 1980 (1980-03-24) (age 29)	67	3	Al-Muharraq
--	MF	Hamad Al Banki	23 June 1988 (1988-06-23) (age 21)
--	MF	Ali Abdulwahab	13 April 1987 (1987-04-13) (age 22)	5	0	Al-Busaiteen
--	MF	Abdulla Abdi Omar	27 March 1988 (1988-03-27) (age 21)	7	0	Al-Riffa
--	FW	Rashad Jamal Salem	18 January 1979 (1979-01-18) (age 30)	28	1	Al-Najma
--	FW	Abdulla Al-Dakeel	3 June 1985 (1985-06-03) (age 24)	12	4	Al-Muharraq
--	FW	Jamal Rashid	7 November 1988 (1988-11-07) (age 21)	8	0	Al-Ahli
--	FW	A'ala Hubail	25 June 1982 (1982-06-25) (age 27)	63	21	Al-Ahli
--	FW	Husain Ali	31 December 1981 (1981-12-31) (age 28)	72	24	Al-Muharraq

Note: Caps and goals may be incomplete for certain players, therefore being inaccurate.

[edit] References