Jan 10 2015
By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Patience tends to wear thin
quickly in Middle Eastern soccer and Marjan Eid knows his tenure
as Bahrain coach may last only three more matches if his team
fails to make the knockout rounds of the Asian Cup.
The low-profile 35-year-old is Bahrain’s third manager in
five months, thrust into the role after his former boss Adnan
Hamad was sacked following a dismal start to the team’s Gulf Cup
of Nations campaign.
Hamad, Asian coach of the year in 2004, had been appointed
on a two-year contract after Englishman Anthony Hudson’s shock
exit to take over as New Zealand head coach last year.
Hamad’s former deputy, Eid at least knows where the
goal-posts are. He has been told in no uncertain terms that he
has only the Asian Cup to make it work.
“After we will sit with the board of directors with the BFA
(Bahrain Football Association) to decide about the next stage,”
he told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday, on the eve of his
team’s Asian Cup opener against Iran.
“For sure, I hope for a very good result to continue with
the team. Any coach has a dream to coach the national team.”
New managers often focus players’ minds and caretaker Eid
has enjoyed something of a honeymoon since taking over in
November.
The 122nd-ranked team trounced Saudi Arabia 4-1 last week
and followed it up with a 1-0 win against Jordan on Sunday,
rekindling hopes of matching their 2004 Asian Cup when they
reached the semi-finals in China.
Much will depend on whether they can upset the tournament’s
highest-ranked team Iran at Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium on
Sunday or at least cadge a point from the game.
Iran coach Carlos Queiroz claims his team is the worst
prepared out of the 16 finalists at the tournament, having
played only two friendlies since the World Cup and had training
camps scrapped due to money problems.
Eid dismissed Queiroz’s griping, saying preparation would
ultimately count for little in the heat of a major tournament.
“Any team in this group can go through qualifying,” said Eid
of Group C which includes the United Arab Emirates and Gulf Cup
champions Qatar.
Geopolitical tensions between Bahrain and Iran have added
spice to their national teams’ matches, with Iran holding a 6-4
winning record from 15 matches.
“The matches between Bahrain and Iran are always tough,” Eid
said. “In each region and each country there are ‘clasicos’ and
Bahrain and Iran are like this.”
(Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
((ian.ransom@thomsonreuters.com; +61 3 9286 1447; Reuters
Messaging: ian.ransom.reuters.com@reuters.net;))
Keywords: SOCCER ASIA/BAHRAIN
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