Bahrain drew their first Group B match 1-1 against Lebanon yesterday in a thrilling game that went literally down to the last 30 seconds on the opening afternoon of the eight-nation Fourth West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) Men’s Futsal Championship in Kuwait.
“It was a very tough game,” team manager Raed Baba told the GDN by phone from Kuwait. “Our goalkeeper, Sayed Abbas, received a red card in the fifth minute of the game. We felt that was unfair – he didn’t deserve to be red-carded – but, obviously, there was nothing we could do about that.”
Futsal is played five-on-five – a goalkeeper plus four others on each team – so the red card meant that Bahrain were immediately at a disadvantage.
But Baba said the other four players – captain Mohamed Alsandi, Falah Yusuf, Mohamed Abdulla and Salman Muhammad – responded magnificently to the challenge of keeping a spirited Lebanese side at bay.
“They were outstanding,” he said. “They just didn’t allow the Lebanese players to get anywhere near our goal.”
In the second period (in futsal, ‘halves’ are referred to as ‘periods’), Bahrain counter-attacked. And the pressure paid off as a concerted assault on the Lebanese goal resulted in a penalty kick in the 37th minute of the 40-minute game.
“In the last eight minutes of the match, the Lebanese had resorted to playing ‘power’, which means that even the goalkeeper was playing as, essentially, a forward,” Baba explained. “In a way, that worked to our advantage with a penalty being earned as we pushed back. And Falah Yusuf converted that without any fuss to put us ahead.”
Sadly, Baba added, the Lebanese side managed to draw level with just 37 seconds remaining in the game when their star forward, Hassan Zeitoun, managed to sneak the ball past the Bahraini defence.
“With just 37 seconds to go!” Baba exclaimed. “Futsal matches don’t get closer than that!”
He added that while he would have preferred a win, he thought both teams could afford to be reasonably pleased with the 1-1 draw in their opening game of the tournament.
“We have two more games now, as we bid for a place in the semi-finals,” Baba continued. “We play Oman on Tuesday and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday. We will be aiming to win both those matches.”
If Bahrain do manage to make it into the semi-finals, they will face any one of the four teams from Group A – Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and hosts Kuwait.