Soccer-Bahrain at the Asian Cup
Dec 29 (Reuters) - Factbox on Bahrain ahead of the Asian Cup, which takes place in the United Arab Emirates from Jan 5 to Feb 1:
FIFA world ranking: 113
Ranking in Asia: 20
Previous Asian Cups: 5
Best performance: Fourth place (2004)
2015: Group stage
Nickname: The Red
Coach: Miroslav Soukup
Regular captain: Sayed Mohamed Jaffer
Player to watch: Ali Madan
Recent form:
Sept 10 Bahrain 0-0 China Riffa
Oct 11 Bahrain 0-1 Syria Riffa
Oct 16 Bahrain 4-1 Myanmar Riffa
Nov 19 Oman 2-1 Bahrain Muscat
Dec 20 Bahrain 5-0 Tajikistan Riffa
Dec 27 Bahrain 1-0 Lebanon Riffa
Fixtures:
Group A
Jan 5 United Arab Emirates v Bahrain Abu Dhabi
Jan 10 Bahrain v Thailand Dubai
Jan 14 India v Bahrain Sharjah
Bahrain are appearing at a fifth consecutive Asian Cup but Miroslav Soukup's side will be hard pushed to emulate the achievements of their more illustrious predecessors despite their relatively straight forward progress to the finals.
The country reached the semi-finals in 2004 before narrowly missing out on qualifying for the World Cup finals in both 2006 and 2010.
The talent in the current squad falls short of those levels, however, and Bahrain are unlikely to be among the challengers at the business end of the tournament. (Compiled by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien)
