page_title: Bahrain national football team
section_title: 2010 World Cup
hierarchical_section_title: Bahrain national football team / History / Rise / 2010 World Cup
caption_attribution_description: English: Socoroos vs Bahrain. World Cup Qualifier
context_page_description: The Bahrain national football team represents Bahrain in international football and is controlled by the Bahrain Football Association, which was founded in 1951 and joined FIFA in 1966. They have never reached the World Cup, but have twice come within one match of doing so. Bahrain won the FIFA's most improved team award in 2004, and finished fourth in the 2004 Asian Cup, beating Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals but losing to Japan in the semi-finals 4–3. Bahrain then lost to Iran in the third-place match, thus finishing in fourth place overall. Bahrain had a golden year in 2019, winning both the WAFF Championship and the Arabian Gulf Cup for the first time, under the stewardship of Hélio Sousa.
context_section_description: In the third round of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Bahrain were drawn into group B along with Japan, Oman, and Thailand. They finished second overall to qualify to the final round, in which Bahrain finished third overall in their group, below Australia and Japan, but above Uzbekistan and Qatar. In the second leg of the playoff against Saudi Arabia to decide Asia's fifth best team, Bahrain drew 2–2 with Saudi Arabia after scoring in stoppage time which allowed them to go through on away goals, after drawing their home leg 0–0. They went on to play New Zealand in the final playoff in which the victory would qualify them for the World Cup, but after a goalless draw in Manama on 10 October 2009, Bahrain lost the return leg 1–0 in Wellington, missing out on qualification at the last hurdle for the second time running.
  2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Fifth Round play-offs:
  AFC 5th place v OFC winner play-offs:
caption: The Bahrain national football team playing Australia on 10 June 2009 in a World Cup qualifier
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