Macala forgets basic strategy to lose crucial tie

Muscat: No coach is more experienced in the Gulf football than Czech Milan Macala, the head of the technical staff of Bahrain.

Macala has worked as head coach for Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain and he can boast of a title in the Gulf Cup with Kuwait and two second places with Oman. But all that did not prevent him from committing a mistake even a beginner coach does not commit.

A golden rule says " Don't change a winning line up except forced". Macala, whose team beat reigning Asian Cup champions Iraq 3-1 in their opening match, made changes in his line-up for their second match against Kuwait and was punished by losing the encounter with a single goal.

He also substituted central defender Sayed Mohammad Adnan at a wrong time and later, in the press conference tried to defend his decisions.

"It was my best line up for this particular match." Macala told reporters. "I gave John the chance to start the match instead of Ala'a Hubail as he is more suitable and I replaced Sayed because he got a yellow card.

"We paid dearly for failing to score from our many chances. We played against Nawaf Al Khaldi, the Kuwaiti goalkeeper who was outstanding in the match and denied us a single goal.

"We still have a chance and we have to beat Oman to reach the semi finals."

Meanwhile, Kuwait head coach Mohammad Ebrahim was enveloped in tears of joy and could hardly find his voice.

"I thank the players for their performance and they applied the game plan for the second time successfully. I am proud of them and now we have to face another tough task in our match against Iraq."

In the last day of competition in Group A, Oman will face Bahrain and Kuwait will play against Iraq.