Afghanistan's beach football team lost to Bahrain 2-5 in its fourth and final match in Doha Friday night, its last chance to qualify for the 2013 FIFA Beach Football World Cup in Tahiti later this year.
Afghanistan had started out strong in the Asian qualifiers for the FIFA tournament, convincingly beating Qatar 7-3 last week. But it lost its three following matches to Oman, Australia and now Bahrain respectively.
The Afghan team finished 11th place out of 16 countries vying for three spots from the Asian nations.
Samiullah Mohammadi, the team captain and striker, scored nine goals – the most of any other player in the team – across all four games.
The team's starting lineup was Kavosh, Jameel Naseeri, Ghulam Hazrat Baran, Mahmoud Azad, and Samiullah Mohammadi.
The FIFA Beach Football World Cup is played every two years. Russia won in 2011, with Brazil, Portugal and El Salvador securing second, third and fourth.