Back To Basics

Bahrain has a new soccer coach in Milan Macala, the fifth in little more than six years, and another goal to aim at …success in the Asian Cup in July.

The 2006 World Cup euphoria has ebbed and the disappointment of the 2007 Gulf Cup has not yet dulled.
The chaotic departure of former coach Hans-Peter Briegel midway through the tournament and the mess he left behind did not help matters either.
Soccer in Bahrain is certainly at the crossroads. The team lacks confidence, is short of fresh legs, new faces and ideas … and time is fast running out with the Asian Cup just weeks away.
What a contrast to the scenes just a year ago. The team was in peak form, confidence was high and a place in the 2006 World Cup just 90 minutes away.
Losing to Trinidad was certainly like a dream ending abruptly, but there was no need to turn it into a nightmare.
But Bahrain did exactly that and there was no cushion to soften the blow. Expectations were so high that when the team fell apart the disappointment was acute and the defeat unacceptable.
The time was ripe for introspection though. Bahrain should have paused and stared into the mirror, taken a hard and honest look at its soccer structure, the talent available and with it the resources needed before proceeding further.
Bahrain, however, continued with the same momentum and now Macala is left with the daunting task of putting a sinking ship back into shape, and that too in double-quick time.
On his part, Macala, pictured left, has started on a stern note, and I suspect he is happy to start from the bottom rather than any bloated number.
After all, it is not a bad idea to go back to the basics and begin with the blackboard.
Just a day after arriving in Bahrain last week to take over the team, Macala looked hard and deep at the prospects and summed up thus: “The team needs a complete overhaul.”
The 63-year-old former Czechoslovakia coach (before the country split into Czech Republic and Slovakia in the early 90s) is quite capable of ushering in a new era in Bahrain soccer.
Macala has the experience and expertise, the will and skill and proven ability to strategise and take quicksilver decisions. As a coach of Kuwait he led to two Gulf Cup victories in 1996 and 1998 and steered Oman to its first Asian Cup finals in 2004. In between, he has also coached Saudi Arabia and the UAE apart from Al Ain club.
For the present task on hand, Macala has already lined-up a 12-day training camp in Austria and two friendlies (against UAE in Kuala Lumpur on June 27 and against Vietnam or Hanoi on either June 30 or July 1) ahead of the Asian Cup.
The new coach has also stressed on peak physical fitness, hard work and strict discipline on and off the field.
And at the business end, he has threatened to make wholesale changes if the present players do not measure up to his expectations.
So as we can see, here is a tough-talking man promising deeds and not mere words. But the task ahead, as even the most optimistic will admit, is still daunting.
The Asian Cup is the premier continental tournament, and with the addition of Australia this year the event has become even more difficult to even progress behind the group stages let alone win it.
At the last edition, Bahrain overachieved in reaching the semi-finals and soaring in the FIFA rankings. It was the beginning of a golden streak.
But a lot of water, and copious amount of tears, has flown down the bridge since then. This year the tournament, to be held in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam beginning on July 7, looks wide open and Bahrain is in a tough group with Asian giants Saudi Arabia and South Korea and hosts Indonesia.
Certainly, the tough get going when the going gets tough, or something close to that. We will have to wait and see how tough Bahrain can get under Macala.

By VIJAY MRUTHYUNJAYA
vmruthyunjay@gmail.com