Bahrain will square off against North Korea today in a crucial round-of-16 knockout match in the football competition of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, with their head coach saying his side was ready and motivated to do their best against a team about which too much information is not readily available.
The North Koreans will be brimming with confidence after winning all three of their preliminary round Group F games without conceding a goal to top the four-team group with nine points while Bahrain had a slightly less easy path to the knockout stage, drawing their first two Group E games 1-1 each and losing the last, 3-0, to defending champions South Korea.
Bahrain head coach Dario Basic told the GDN by phone from Hangzhou that his players had a healthy respect for the North Koreans and also revealed that finding up-to-date information about them had proved to be a tough task for him and his staff.
“North Korea are always a little bit of a mystery,” he said.
“There’s not too much information available about this team or about the players. We don’t even know which leagues they play in and what clubs they play for.
“So all we know about them – which is what we based our analysis on – is how they played in their three first-round games. What we saw was impressive: a team that won all three of its matches without conceding a goal is a very good side and one to respect.”
The Bahrain players were ready and motivated for the challenge, though, Basic added.
“We’re ready and happy to be in the knockout stage,” he declared.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to do well and take one more step further in the tournament – hopefully, we’ll be able to go on to the quarter-finals.”
His players had been briefed about what to expect in the encounter with North Korea, Basic continued.
“Not having seen them before, it was a bit of a surprise, personally, to witness their style of play in this tournament,” he explained.
“North Korea are defensively very correct and physically very good. I found them to be very methodical: they may be a little bit on the shorter side but they’re very quick, always on the move, always ready to run rings around the opposition.
“And they have lots of combinations, which are all very effective. So we’ve briefed the players about our analysis and told them what to expect in the game.”
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