Bahrain suffered a blow to their semi-final hopes in the 19th Asian Men’s Handball Championship after losing to Japan 23-25 yesterday at Shaikh Saad Al-Abdulla Sports Hall Complex in Kuwait City.
Bahrain headed into the match on a high, having strung together three straight victories in the tournament including one to kick-start their campaign in the main round.
But they were suddenly brought back down to earth by their Japanese counterparts, who came up big in the second half en route to securing the all-important victory.
Japan score a goal against Bahrain.
With the result, Japan have one foot in the final four and are now atop the Group One standings, followed by Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia
The UAE were 23-20 victors over Saudi yesterday, keeping their hopes alive of making it to the semi-finals.
Tomorrow’s last day in the main round will determine who advances to the round of four. Japan take on the UAE at 2pm at Shaikh Saad complex while Bahrain face off with Saudi at 4pm, both Bahrain time.
Outright victories for Bahrain and Japan would see them both go through, but should there be any different scenarios, there could be a two-team or three-team tie.
The first factor that would be considered to break any tie is the team’s points. Then, head-to-head points will come into account, head-to-head goal difference, head-to-head number of goals scored, and then goal difference.
Bahrain are hoping to make it through to the semi-finals for the fourth time in a row in the history of the continental competition. The Bahrainis are also gunning for their first Asian title, having been forced to settle for silver in each of the last three tournaments.
The national team were in control of the contest against Japan early on, and they held an 11-10 lead at the half. But they couldn’t hang on to it for long and the Japanese took full advantage of the situation.
Yuto Agarie fired in an impressive eight goals to finish as the game’s leading scorer. Teammate Tatsuki Yoshino added six goals, and Shinnosuke Tokuda supplied another three for their side, who are coached by former Olympian Dagur Sigurdsson from Iceland.
Bahrain are also coached by a former Icelandic international in Aron Kristjansson. They were led by the four goals of skipper Hussain Al Sayyad, while Ahmed Fadhul, Ahmed Almaqabi, Ali Mirza and Mahdi Saad scored three goals apiece.
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