Bashir’s retirement had no effect on Oman’s performance, coach says

Manama: Oman coach Paul Le Guen denied captain Fawzi Bashir’s pre-match retirement had any effect on his team’s morale, after they crashed out of the Gulf Cup with a 2-0 loss to the UAE on Friday.

Bashir, who had been dropped for the Sultanate’s 0-0 opening draw with Bahrain and substituted midway through their 2-1 loss to Qatar, bemused some by saying he would quit after the UAE match. This was in spite of the fact that a win could have theoretically seen them progress to the semi-finals if Bahrain and Qatar had drawn.

The announcement hardly instilled confidence in the team’s ability to move forward in the tournament and Bashir, 34, was criticised by some media here for his defeatist attitude.

Bashir’s decision to retire internationally follows rumours of a rift between himself and Le Guen, with Muscat Daily having reported a bust up between the pair last month after a friendly with Togo.

But Le Guen has said there is no problem between he and his captain, and said he respected the Al Dhafra midfielder’s timing to hang up his boots.

“I am respectful of his decision,” said Le Guen. “Everybody understands this is not the problem [with our team], which is a lack of efficiency in front of goal.”

“He’s my captain. I respect him and I congratulate him on his career. There’s no problem between us,” Le Guen added.

Oman dominated for 80 minutes against the UAE until substitute Ahmad Khalil nicked a late brace on the counter after the Sultanate were forced to take more risks to win. It was reminiscent of their earlier two games where they dominated but couldn’t score.

Le Guen said: “Between the [penalty] boxes we were the best team in the tournament, but inside it we were the worst. The gap between how we played and the result is huge and it’s a huge disappointment.

“We must recognise this is a failure. But it’s not my habit to give up, we will fight to find an answer, but there is no miracle solution.”

Of his plans for the future with the team, he added: “I want to continue to play with a mix of youth and experience, but we have to accept that some [players] are on the verge of finishing with the national team now, so we will have to refresh. This is difficult because at international level you need a mix of youth and experience and you can’t buy experience. Only games will give you that.”