Two of Bahrain’s top footballers, Ala’a Hubail and his brother Mohammed, have been arrested for participating in anti-government demonstrations. “The dismissals are widely believed to have occurred at the behest of the government,” writes James Dorsey over at the mideastsoccer blog. 200 Shi’a sportspeople in the Gulf kingdom have been suspended as the hardline Sunni government continues its repression campaign against the democratic reform movement.
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Belated respect to the All Whites. New Zealand represent!
Bahrain’s unexpected defeat leaves the Arab World with only one representative in South Africa. Sayef Mohammed Adnan’s penalty miss in Wellington will have done more than just dampen the spirits on the Emir’s beach. It invites a significant Arab cultural deficit extending well beyond Bahrain.
This may well go unnoticed or be easily forgotten by Arab scholars and Arab media busy with grim development statistics and wars or captivated by ceremonial comings and goings and fashionable American and European diplomats and stars. It should not.
While Omar and his boys from Bahrain were shooting down the Saudis in the Kingdom, New Zealand were in that other Kingdom kicking it with the Hashemites. It was an experience. New Zealand won the friendly 3-1. The Hashemites ain’t got game no mo’.
New Zealand fancy their chances now. Former captain, Steve Sumner, interviewed for the Christchurch Press, said Bahrain was their “best and easiet” route to the World Cup finals. Sumner also sees English Premier League experience as important for New Zealand, noting in the same interview, the presence of some hacker from New Zealand in Blackburn Rovers’ squad.
Nasser Al Shamrani scored the opener for Arabia, but in the 40th minute my man Abdulla Omar burst in the box and fed Brother Jaycee John. 1-1. It remained 1-1 until the 91st minute, when Hamad Al-Montashari nodded in what looked like the winner. The Kingdom gave all praises to Allah.
But Ismail Abdullatif had other ideas. And there was no Colombian referee to disallow Bahrain’s 92nd minute goal. Ya Allah Bahrain.
Bahrain will host New Zealand on October 10th. The 2nd leg will be in Wellington on November 14th.
When Ahmed Hassan wheeled away to celebrate scoring a 92nd minute equalizer against Trinidad and Tobago, Bahrain believed they were on their way to the 2006 World Cup. Colombian ref Oscar Julian Ruiz Acost had other ideas. The goal was of the Best Banks variety. The sort of goal no one wants to see disallowed, especially when the forward’s cheekiness is executed with such fine precision.
Trinidad and Tobago had experienced last minute heartache some years before. No one begrudged them their ticket to Germany, save for a few Sheikhs in Manama.