Bahrain must strive for ‘even more great moments’

TDT | Manama     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain must strive to continue building Bahrain’s national team if they hope to relive some of their past successes in major international competitions.

This was stressed by veteran goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, who next week is hoping to help lead the nationals to their seventh appearance in the AFC Asian Cup, the continent’s showpiece football tournament.

Jaafar made his Asian Cup debut for Bahrain in 2004 at the age of 18. That year, the Bahrainis finished an unprecedented fourth place from the 16 participating nations, making it all the way to the semi-finals before losing to Japan in extra-time and eventually missing out on a medal finish.

Bahrain have yet to repeat that success, only making it past the group stage once since that year when they qualified for the Round of 16 in the 2019 edition. Jaafar says that while the nationals have enjoyed other recent achievements, they must never settle and should always look to improve, and hopefully one day taste Asian Cup glory.

“That was a great moment to live,” Jaafar said, looking back at the Bahrainis’ 2004 Asian Cup success. “But we are also living great moments already. That’s why we have to keep improving ourselves to have even more great moments.”

The Muharraq Club legend earlier this week became Bahrain’s most-capped active player in the history of the national team, making his 150th appearance for the Kingdom in a friendly win over Thailand.

“For me, I have long experience, so I want to pass some of my knowledge to others,” Jaafar said. “So many of our young players need these kinds of moments for motivation,” he added. “This is what I am looking for as a player and as the captain of our team.”

Preparations Jaafar is part of a 24-player Bahrain team that kicked off its final preparations in Kuala Lumpur yesterday for their upcoming matches in AFC Asian Cup 2023 qualification. The Bahrain squad at the Malaysian capital also features Jaafar’s fellow-goalkeepers Sayed Shubbar Alawi and Ammar Mohammed; defenders Rashed Alhooti, Ahmed Abdulla, Waleed Al Hayyam, Ameen Denade, Ahmed Bughammar, Hamad Shamsan, Abbas Ayyad and Sayed Redha Isa; midfielders Ali Haram, Jassim Al Shaikh, Mahdi Abdullatif, Ammar Jaffar, Komail Alaswad, Abdulwahab Almalood, Ali Madan, Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Mahdi Humaidan and Saeed; and strikers Hashim Sayed Isa and Abdulla Yusuf.

The nationals are set to play in Group E of Asian Cup qualification alongside Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. The games will be held over a single round on three matchdays, first on June 8 against Bangladesh, then on June 11 against Malaysia, and finally on June 14 against Turkmenistan.