FOOTBALL – A 26-player senior men’s football national team was announced yesterday for Bahrain’s return to action in the third round of Asian qualification for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
The nationals are scheduled to play two away games later this month – first against Japan on March 20 and then against Indonesia on March 25.
They will be the seventh and eighth games in their Group C bid in this round of qualifiers for football’s biggest competition. The Bahrainis will have two more games after that, both in June against Saudi Arabia at home on June 5 and then against China away on June 10.
Bahrain head coach Dragan Talajic has named a squad that is made up of a majority of the team that won the 26th Gulf Cup title in January. The upcoming matches will be their first fixtures together since that historic triumph.
The Bahrainis will be led by their star names including Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Komail Al Aswad, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Mahdi Humaidan, Ali Madan, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Amine Benaddi, Waleed Al Hayyam, and goalkeeper Ebrahim Luthfallah. The roster also features a good mix of veteran and young talent, namely Ismaeel Abdullatif, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Ali Haram, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Ahmed Bughammar, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Hazza Ali, Vincent Emmanuel, Jassim Al Shaikh, Hamad Shamsan, Hussain Abdulkarim, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Ahmed Al Wadaie, and goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaafar.
The line-up is completed by new call-ups Hussain Al Eker and goalkeeper Abdulkarim Al Fardan.
The Bahrainis are scheduled to begin their local gathering under Talajic tonight. They are then set to travel to Japan on Thursday next week.
The Bahrainis are currently fifth on the Group C table where they are tied with three other nations on points. Japan are in first place with 16 points after winning five of their six games so far. Australia follow with seven points, but are just one ahead of Indonesia, Saudi, Bahrain and China, who all have six points apiece in this tightly contested pool.
There are three groups in all in this round of continental qualifying. Group A features Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea; while Group B is composed of South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait.
Only the top two finishers from each group will punch their tickets to the Fifa World Cup 2026. The third and fourth-placed squads will compete in a fourth round of Asian qualification.
The national team’s match against Japan on March 20 will be held at Saitama Stadium 2002 in Saitama, and it is scheduled for a 1.35pm kick-off. Their game against Indonesia will then be held at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, set for a 4.45pm kick-off.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
Top stories for today:
Pressure on Ukraine as US cuts off intelligence
Pope stable and resumes some work Vatican says
UN food agency ‘has two weeks’ worth of supplies in Gaza’
&uuid=(email))