Vietnam Olympics - Bahrain Olympics: Meeting old friends

Coach Samir Chammam frankly admitted that this is a group of young players for the future rather than achievements at ASIAD 18. Reaching the round of 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams is already a success for Olympic Bahrain, who their opponents are is no longer too important.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Vision

At the 18th Asian Games, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Japan brought to Indonesia a very young squad, with no player over 23 years old. The football teams of these three countries are all aiming to win tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and they used the 2018 Asian Games as an important stepping stone to gain experience for their long-term investment in the U21 players.

In coach Samir Chammam's squad, there are 10 players born in 1997, 6 players born in 1998, 3 players born in 1999 and striker Ahmed Alsherooqi is only 18 years old this year (born in 2000).

Coach Samir Chammam frankly admitted that this is a group of young players for the future rather than achievements at ASIAD 18. Photo: Internet

With a fairly young squad, Bahrain was crushed by South Korea in their opening match with a score of 6-0. It was a big shock, but they were not defeated by that terrible score. In the next match, captain Mohamed Hardan and his teammates made great efforts to have a dramatic 2-2 draw with Kyrgyzstan, with Sanad's equalizer in the 90+4 minute.

And they took their chance by beating Malaysia 3-2 to reach the round of 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams. It is difficult to say exactly how strong Bahrain will be because Malaysia only used their reserve team in the last match after securing top spot in the group.

Bahrain Olympic team's style of play is quite simple, using many long, high balls. When awarded a corner kick, the ball always goes to defender Hasan Alkarrani (1m85), Ahmed Bughammar (1m81) and captain midfielder Mohamed Hardan (1m83) - who are the tallest players in the team, except for the two goalkeepers.

There are 5 players: captain Mohamed Hardan, goalkeeper Ammar Ahmed, defender Hamad Alshamsan, midfielder Mohamed Marhoon, striker Hashim Hashim are considered the pillars of the Bahrain Olympic team. They started all 3 group stage matches and have a very strong physical foundation.

Captain Mohamed Hardan, who plays in the Danish SuperLiga, in addition to scoring two goals against Malaysia, also played very skillfully and intelligently in the middle of the field. This conductor always had the ability to open up the ball to the two wings as well as play in the middle with great intention.

Meeting old friends

10 players in the Bahrain Olympic squad had to experience a 0-1 defeat against U19 Vietnam in the quarter-finals of the 2016 AFC U19 Championship right at home. They were Yusuf Shabaan, Ammar Ahmed, Abdulaziz Al Kandari, Sabba Husain, Ahmed Bughammar, Hamad Al Shamsan, Mohamed Jasim Marhoon, Sayed Ebrahim, Hasan Al Karani and Sayed Hashim. Coach Abdulaziz Abdo Omar had to resign immediately after that.

On our side, 4 U19 Vietnam players participated in that victory: goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung, defender Doan Van Hau, midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai and striker Ha Duc Chinh.

2018 Asian Games men's football branching diagram. Photo: Internet

Because they entered the round of 16 with a "survival ticket", Coach Samir did not have much time to get information about the Vietnam Olympic team, except to know that Coach Park Hang Seo's team won first place in Group D.

According to coach Samir, Bahrain will only study Olympic Vietnam after the match with Malaysia, to see if the team plays very technically and follows the 3-defender strategy.

In 2010, at the Guangzhou Asian Games, Vietnam Olympic team under the guidance of coach Phan Thanh Hung defeated Bahrain Olympic team 3-1. Anh Duc was the one who scored the goal to raise the score to 3-0 for Vietnam Olympic team. The skillful and quick-witted Vietnamese players are always the nemesis of young West Asian players.

Hopefully this time Anh Duc, Van Duc and teammates will have another victory to bring our team to the next round.