MANAMA, 16 November 2005 — World Cup fever hit Bahrain as their national team prepare to meet Trinidad & Tobago national soccer team today in the second leg of the World Cup qualifier.
The Bahrainis held Trinidad to a 1-1 draw on Sunday when they played them in Port-of-Spain, with hopes still alive for both teams as they remain 90 minutes away from their first ever qualification to the World Cup.
Trinidad had flirted twice before with the possibility of making it into the World Cup once in 1974 and again 1990, while it is the first ever for the Bahrainis. Tickets had been fully sold at the VIP section of Bahrain National Stadium, with officials expecting to have the 30,000 seats sold-out before the game.
The Bahrainis, who only need a victory or a scoreless draw to advance , were counting on having the edge playing at home.
Bahrain’s Belgan coach, Luka Peruzovic, who described the upcoming game as a ‘tough one’ said that he was confident in his team and happy with the formation he has, despite having to sit two of his key players (Salmean and Al Murzooqi) because of suspension.
“I am confident in the players I have. It is a good formation and I am sure we will find a way to fill the gaps caused by the suspensions,” he said. Trinidad and Tobago Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker also vowed to turn the tables on the Bahrainis expressing his disappointment with his team’s last performance.
“You will see our players playing on a good level,” he told reporters during a back-to-back press conference he had following an earlier one with Peruzovic in Manama yesterday.“We did not play well and our level of playing the Bahrain match and the match against Mexico was far too much different. That is why I was disappointed”.
Both teams carried out their final hour long training sessions, which were closed to the media and public, at Bahrain National Stadium in Riffa with the Bahrainis going first. Trinidad and Tobago president, George Maxwell Richards, and his wife arrived late Sunday night to attend their country’s second and final leg playoff match against Bahrain.
