BAHRAIN'S Olympic soccer team arrived in Damascus yesterday for their Beijing 2008 Olympics qualifying match against Syria tomorrow at the Hamdanyeh Stadium in Aleppo City.

The match is the Bahrainis' first in the final qualifying round for Beijing. They are in group 'B' with the Syrian, South Korea and Uzbekistan.

National soccer coach Milan Macala travelled with the team to Damascus after earlier speculation that he would likely not join them for the match. He named 21 players to the squad, which will be spearheaded by men's senior team players Jaycee John, Abdulla Fatai, Faouzi Aaish, and Sayed Mohammed Adnan. All four are from Muharraq Club.

An important exclusion from the team was Ismail Abdullatif, who is also part of the senior team but was not selected because of his status as a professional player outside Bahrain.

Macala conducted a practice with the team yesterday afternoon. Team administrator Abdulrazzaq Mohammed, who is with the Bahrainis in Syria, told the GDN that they will travel to Aleppo by plane today.

"Our players are ready for the match," Mohammed said by telephone. "All our players are doing well. They are all fit, and are looking forward to playing Syria."

The Bahrainis had a 15-day training camp earlier this month in Al Ain and Doha in preparation for tomorrow's match. They played four friendly matches during that span, three of which they won.

The Bahraini delegation in Syria is being headed by Bahrain Football Association (BFA) president Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

The team's next game will be at home against the Koreans on September 8.

The round consists of another two groups. Group 'A' includes Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea and Australia, while group 'C' is made up of Japan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Vietnam.

Only the top team from each group will advance as representatives of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for next year's Olympics, along with hosts China.

Bahrain team:

Delegation head: Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa. Coaching staff: Milan Macala, Ivan Hucko. Team officials: Arif Abdulrazzaq, Abdulrazzaq Mohammed. Physiotherapist: Abdulamir Al Saeed

Players: Sayed Mohammed Jaffer, Abdulla Al Kaabi, Sayed Shubbar Ibrahim, Faouzi Aaish, Ahmed Bubsheit, Abbas Ayyad, Mohammed Isa, Jamal Rashid, Mahmood Al Ojaimi, Ahmed Abdulla, Mahmood Abbas, Ali Yaqoot, Rashid Al Sherooqi, Abdulla Fatai, Hassan Khamis, Hamad Faisal, Abdulla Abdu, Jassim Al Malood, Sami Al Alawi, Abdulla Al Dekheel, Jaycee John.

Gulf Daily News