Courtesy: Gulf Daily News


Futsal team for Doha event

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

BAHRAIN'S national futsal team is set to begin daily training tonight in preparation for next month's West Asia Futsal Championship.

The tournament is scheduled to take place from October 13 to 18 at Al Rayyan Sports Club in Doha. It will also act as a qualifying competition for the Asian Futsal Championship, which will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 2010.

The Bahrainis, coached by Gustavo Zloccowick of Brazil, will be practising in the Gulf Finance House gym at the Um Al Hassam sports complex.

The team recently returned from a regional warm-up tournament in Amman, where they faced several other West Asian nations en route to finishing fourth out of five teams.

Despite being classified second-from-last, Zloccowick was encouraged by Bahrain's performance, considering it was their debut appearance in any overseas futsal tournament.

Luck

"Our players did well; they played hard and we could have finished with better results if we had a little more luck," Zloccowick told the GDN.

"But the most important thing from that competition was we gained experience as a team. Futsal is a different game from football; one mistake can make a big difference quickly. Our players now understand the game better, and I am confident we can get some good results in Qatar and qualify for the Asian championship.

"As we begin training, we will work hard every day to be best prepared."

Bahrain have been drawn in a tough group 'A' for the West Asia event. They are set to face the likes of powerhouses Lebanon and Qatar, as well as Saudi Arabia, who like Bahrain are fledglings in such a futsal event.

Lebanon are the top seeds in West Asia, while Qatar are also highly ranked and have a quality futsal league and national programme.

Group 'B' features Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan.

The champions, runners-up, and third-placers all make it through to next year's continental championship, which is being organised by the Asian Football Confederation.

Meanwhile, Zloccowick revealed that the Asian qualifiers for this year's Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup are scheduled to take place in Dubai from November 7 to 11. The World Cup will also be held at the Emirate, and will follow the Asian tournament between November 16 and 22.

Zloccowick said that Bahrain's team will be resuming training this week after taking a short Eid break.

Zloccowick hopes to once again steer the nationals to the top of continental beach soccer after guiding them to the Asian title in 2006. The Bahrainis then went on to make it as far as the quarter-finals in the World Cup later that year.

Since, however, they have yet to match that feat or even appear at the annual World Cup.

"So far, our beach soccer team is looking good," Zloccowick said. "We must continue training hard as we wait for the Asian qualifiers, and hopefully we can play once again in the World Cup, which is the most important thing."







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com