The national youth team will start the Gulf Basketball Championship today, with the meeting of the Sultanate of Oman at 7 pm UAE time, in the tournament, which will be hosted by the Bahraini capital Manama, and will continue until the current 25th, and is qualified for the Asian Cup 2020.
The UAE national team in the Gulf of Bahrain is represented by 12 players from the UAE clubs: Yousef Waseem, Rashid Saif, Hazza Omar, Yousef Sayed, Waleed Khalid, Khalid Khamis from Sharjah, Saleh Ibrahim and Saif Ahmed from Al Wahda, Abdullah Ahmed and Abdulaziz Khalifa from Al Wasl and Abdullah Khalid. From Bani Yas Club, and Hussein Ibrahim from Al Nasr Club, the technical management of the team is Syrian coach Hammam Kirkukli.
The team needs to win the kickoff bet, to compete for one of the two qualifying cards to Asia, especially as the white will face tomorrow Saudi green, before going to rest on Wednesday, and then play against Kuwait and Qatar on Thursday and Friday. The national team concludes the competition with a difficult confrontation with the homeowner and the Bahraini national team on 25th of this month.
The young white prepared for the Gulf merit, through internal rallies started since last May, and then followed finally in an external camp held in Turkey during the period from July 27 to August 7, during which the white played eight friendly matches, most notably winning on two occasions against the youth team Cyprus (67-57) and 66-55 respectively.
For his part, the coach of the national team, Syrian coach Hammam Kirkukli, said that overcoming the obstacle of the opening game will revive the chances of white in the competition for one of the two qualifiers to Asia 2020, Kirkukli told «Emirates Today», «White mission will not be easy to overcome the obstacle of the team Oman, which has promising elements, but winning the match will represent an additional dose of self-confidence to compete for the first and second places qualified to Asia ».
He explained: «All teams have equal chances to compete for the champions and runners-up, in light of the convergence of levels, hence the importance of achieving a positive result in our game against Oman, especially as we will face the Saudi team in the second day of the tournament».
He added: “As we enter the first rest stations, we will have the opportunity to rearrange our papers in the required manner before facing Kuwait and Qatar, especially as we will have an extra day of rest before our toughest confrontation in the tournament, which will finally bring us together with the host Bahraini team, which always enjoys a huge public support in "Basketball has remained very popular in Bahrain."
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Players from different clubs represent the national team in the Gulf championship, led by Syrian coach Hammam Kirkukli.