By Colin Pereira
Sports Sub-Editor
colinp@sph.com.sg

 

WITH the conclusion of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers fast approaching, this week’s fixtures throw up a number of compelling scenarios.

Up to 15 spots in South Africa could be decided over the next five days with the likes of Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Chile, the United States and Mexico all in strong positions to qualify.

Meanwhile, the qualification hopes of Argentina, France and Portugal all hang in the balance.

For Singaporeans, there should really be little interest with the national team long eliminated.

But when it comes to football, national loyalties matter little to us and we have conveniently hitched ourselves to the flags of other countries when it comes to the World Cup.

Without doubt then, there will be Singaporean fans of France, Argentina and Portugal (without any social or physical attachment to the country in question) nervously watching to see if their adopted team can make it through to the finals.

However, if there is a country that we should be cheering on this weekend, it is not one of those traditional giants but the tiny island nation of Bahrain, who face Oceania champions New Zealand in the first leg of a play-off in Manama on Saturday.

The similarities between the Gulf kingdom and our own country are rather striking.

Both are island nations of fairly similar size connected to a much larger country by a causeway.

Both countries have overcome their small stature to maintain their independence and achieve economic success against the odds.

And in football, both can claim to have punched above their weight in recent times thanks to teams supplemented by imported talent.

In one regard, our national team can claim to be better than Bahrain’s as we have won three regional titles while they have yet to win a Gulf Cup or Arab Nations Cup.

But it is Bahrain – with a population of under 800,000 – that has come closer to continental success, narrowly missing out on the Asian Cup final in 2004 after a dramatic 3-4 extra-time loss to defending champions Japan.

And in the World Cup qualifiers, they have gone so much further than Singapore.

With a team composed entirely of local-born players, Bahrain narrowly missed out on Germany 2006, losing out to Trinidad & Tobago in the final round of the play-offs.

Since that heartbreaking defeat, the Gulf side have, like Singapore, added foreign talent in the shape of Nigeria-born Abdulla Baba Fatadi and Jaycee John Okwunwanne, Chad-born Abdulla Omar and Morocco-born Fawzi Aish.

And under the guidance of wily Czech coach Milan Macala, they have battled their way back into the World Cup qualifying mix yet again.

However, it would be unfair to pin their success entirely to the foreign legion.

Locally-produced players like goalkeeper Sayed Jaffer, midfielders Sayed Adnan and Mohamed Hubail, striker Husain Ali and skipper Sayed Jalal have all played major roles in Bahrain’s qualifying campaign as they seek to erase the disappointment of 2006.

And there is much to be admired about this plucky team, who managed only one point from their first three games in the fourth round of the Asian qualifiers, yet battled back to beat Qatar and Uzbekistan for third place in their group.

That earned them a berth in the Asian play-off against their neighbours Saudi Arabia, a team that had qualified for every World Cup since 1994.

The Bahrainis were unlucky not to win the first leg in Manama, which ended goalless. And in the return match in Riyadh, they looked to be headed out when Hamad Al Montashari headed the Saudis into a 2-1 lead in stoppage time.

But their never-say-die attitude won the day as Ismael Abdullatif headed in a dramatic equaliser right at the death to send them through on away goals.

If they do manage to get past New Zealand, Bahrain – with a land mass of only 750 sq km – would become the tiniest ever country to qualify for the World Cup.

In the Asian Football Confederation, only Macau, the Maldives and Singapore can claim to be smaller.