BAHRAIN Olympic football team were yesterday crowned champions in the PSSI Anniversary Cup in Jakarta.
The under-23 team clinched the title defeating North Korea 4-1 in their concluding match of the round-robin competition.
Bahrain finished the tournament with two wins and a draw. Earlier, Bahrain had beaten the hosts Indonesia 1-0 and drew 3-3 with Uzbekistan.
“Of course I am very happy because our players performed quite well in this event,” said Olympic team head coach Samir bin Chammam.
“This title is a good capital to lift our players’ morale before the Asian Games.”
The tournament was part of the Olympic team’s preparations for the 2018 Asian Games to be held in Jakarta in August and September.
Bahrain goals were scored by Ahmed Saleh, Jassim Khelaif and substitute Ahmed Al Sherooqi, who netted twice.
Saleh scored the lone goal of the first-half while Khelaif was on target in the 52nd minute.
Five minutes later Al Sherooqi fired in his first goal to give Bahrain a comfortable 3-0 advantage.
The North Koreans were able to get on the score sheet through Song Kum Song in the 60th minute.
Al Sherooqi was on target again in the 75th minute to seal the match 4-1.
Defeat
For the North Koreans, it was their first defeat of the tournament. They had earlier drawn 2-2 against the Uzbeks and 0-0 with the hosts.
Apart from Saleh, Khelaif and Al Sherooqi, the Bahrain squad consisted of: Ahmed Bu Ghammar, Hussain Jameel, Yousif Habeeb, Anwar Ahmed, Hamad Shamsan, Sayed Hashim Isa, Abdulaziz Al Kandari, Hassan Al Karani, Hamza Al Joben, Ali Hassan, Abdulaziz Khalid, Mohammed Marhoon, Adnan Fawaz, Hassan Madan, Abbas Al Asfoor, Musab Omar, Yasser Mohammed, Sayed Ibrahim Alawi, Salim Hussain and Sayed Mohammed Ameen.
In the Asian Games, South Korea are the defending champions while North Korea were the silver-medalists and Iraq the bronze winners.