It’s all doom and gloom for Bahrain

DOHA: Tiny Bahrain failed to get into the knockout rounds at the last Asian Cup in 2007 and with Australia and South Korea awaiting them in Doha a similar fate could be on the cards.

Avoiding last place in Group C must be their priority as they come into the tournament riding a poor run of form.

Their outcome is in the hands of former international Salman Sharida, who recently took over when Austrian Josef Hickersberger quit to return to his previous club Al Wahda of United Arab Emirates.

But Sharida, who lacks international experience, has enjoyed little success so far, and with failure at the tournament often seeing heads roll, he has his work cut out.

Under Sharida, Bahrain were held goalless by Uganda in November, followed by a 2-0 loss at the hands of fellow Asian Cup finalists Syria.

They were then held 1-1 in the Gulf Cup opener by Oman before losing 3-2 to Iraq, the defending Asian Cup champions.

The Gulf Cup turned into a disaster with the team only managing a point from their group – emphasising the difficulty of their task in Qatar.

A 1-1 draw in a warm-up game with Uzbekistan last week failed to lift the gloom before they bounced back to beat Jordan 2-1 in another friendly for a much-needed morale boost.

While Bahrain, who are in their third consecutive Asian Cup, haven’t made too many footballing headlines recently, they were plastered over the papers in September when they found themselves at the centre of an elaborate scam.

They beat Togo 3-0 in Manama in a warm-up to the West Asian Football Federation Championship only to find that the visitors were a fraud, masquerading as the national squad.

Amusing as it was, it came at a cost with several people, including an ex-Togo sports minister, being detained.

There is no chance of that happening in Doha with Australia and South Korea boosting top-rated teams full of European-based stars.

Bahrain open their campaign against the Koreans at Al Gharafa Stadium on Jan 10 before facing a must-win match against group minnows India, who are under the tutlege of English journeyman Bobby Houghton.