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Report

Who sits on top? - A closer look on Season 2006

Date: 20 October 2006

New Radiant | Victory | Valencia | Island Football Club

Victory (red) and New Radiant scored most no. of goals in this season

Another local football season ended giving lots of joy to some clubs and others left with frustration and disappointment. Here comes maldivesoccer’s analysis based on the performance of top clubs of this season. The report contains statistics of only first division matches including AFC Cup and Zone 1-8 qualification.

One of the heart breaking events of the season could be the relegation of Hurriyya from first division. A club many believe brought enormous joy to the local competitions. Those who regularly enter stadium to watch local matches will definitely miss that “Hurr-rr-iyya hope, hope” chants and the sound of “bodu beru”.

Another talking point of the season is the incidents that involved players and supporters in this year’s ill tempered President’s Cup.

Through out the season first division teams played a total of 123 matches in national stadium, including the six AFC Cup matches, season opening match and Dhivehi League Qualification zone 1-8 matches. A total of 725 goals were scored in these 123 matches including the 13 goals scored by AFC Cup opponents. (Take a note that this figure does not include the goals New Radiant and Hurriyya scored in their AFC Cup away games)

Most number of goals were scored by Victory that is 72 (in 2005, 87) , New Radiant scored 71 goals (in 2005, 79) and Valencia scored 62 including two own goals scored by the opponents (in 2005, 95).

Most number of games were played by New Radiant that is 36 (in 2005, 39) Victory and Valencia each played 29 games, in last season it was 28 and 34 matches respectively.

Victory won 66% of games they played; Valencia has 59% while New Radiant managed to win 56%.

Top four Teams (arranged in descending order of no.of matches played)
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New Radiant

Blues won Dhivehi League for the first time

New Radiant started the season with a 2-0 defeat against Victory in the season opening match. They also failed to shine in AFC Cup and were knocked out in the group stage. But they managed to defend FA Cup, won Dhivehi League for the first time and entered Cup Winners Cup final after winning all their group games but were beaten by Victory in penalty shoot out after the game ended 3-3.

New Radiant played 36 games in this season and out of that they were able to win 20 matches (56%), drew 4 matches (11%) and lost 12 matches (33%). The figure in last season was 22 wins, 9 draws, 8 defeats and in percentage it was 56, 23 and 21 respectively.

New Radiant scored 71 goals in their 36 appearance that gives an average of 1.97 goals per match. The figure was 2 in last season and they conceded 60 goals this season, relatively a disappointment figure compared to their 37 goals conceded in 2005.

Top Scorers

Ibrahim Fazeel leads not only the top scorer’s chart of New Radiant but also the season as a whole. So far he scored 21 goals  for New Radiant in this season and has the chance of increasing his tally if scores in Asian Games, which is scheduled to held in Doha next December.

Followed by Fazeel is last year’s top scorer Ali Ashfaag, who scored 17 goals and has the chance to overcome Fazeel if he nets some in Asian Games. Ashfaag’s scoring rate declined in this season as he scored more than 30 goals a season when he was in Valencia.

Ali Umar scored 10 goals and Nita, whose contract was terminated in the middle of the season, scored 8 goals.

Victory

Victory defended President's Cup

A bright season for Victory and can be said that they are the only team who maintained their form through out the season. They started the season winning the season opening game and ended the season winning the President’s Cup. They finished on top of three tournaments; Cup Winners Cup, Dhivehi League Qualification zone 9 and President’s Cup. Unfortunately missed Dhivehi league in the last second of competitions last match played against New Radiant. Another huge success they achieved in this season is confirming a ticket to AFC Cup 2007.

Victory played 29 matches in this season and they won 19 matches (66%), drew 7 (24%) and lost only 3 matches (10%). In 2005 it was 20 wins (71%), 2 draws (7%) and 6 defeats (21%).

Victory scored a total of 72 goals in their 29 appearances and conceded only 23 goals, which gives an average of 2.48 goals per match. In 2005 they scored 87 and conceded only 25 and had an average of 3.1 goals per match.

Top Scorers

Friday tops Victory’s top scorers chart with 16 goals and take a note that he joined the reds from Dhivehi League Qualification zone 9. Followed by Friday is Eric, who scored all his 12 goals in Dhivehi League and left the club at the end of the league. Shiyam (Dhona) and Issey scored 7 goals each.

Valencia

Valencia needs improvement

Undoubtedly a disappointing season for the yellow team, appearing in the finals of two tournaments only and were defeated by the opponents in both occasions and that forced Valencia to finish the season with an empty hand.

New Radiant beat them 2-0 in FA Cup final and Victory made it possible to outcast them from penalties in President’s Cup final.

Similar to Victory, Valencia also played 29 matches in this season and won 17 (59%), drew 4 (14%) and lost 8 matches (28%). But with the help of AFC Cup group stage matches in last year Valencia played 34 games and had 16 wins (47%), 10 draws (29%) and 8 defeats (24%).

Valencia managed to net 62 goals in this season; thanks to the two own goals scored by Gayyoom of IFC in Dhivehi League Qualification zone 9 and Hassan Faisal of Mahibadhoo in Dhivehi League round 1. Valencia conceded a disappointing 45 goals and the worst is the 18 goals they conceded in Cup Winners Cup 4 matches. Last year they scored a record of 95 goals and conceded 56 in 34 games. Goals per match lie in 2.14 this year and last year it was 2.8.

Top Scorers

Assad, Andy and Henry each scored 7 goals for Valencia and Oiyttey scored 6 goals. Shinaz, who joined from Dhivehi League, scored 5 goals.

Island Football Club

IFC walked out in President's Cup

The second consecutive disappointing season for IFC and most surprisingly they were beaten in their first match of FA Cup this year by Eagles. Under the coaching of former Guraidhoo coach, the best IFC achieved was finishing second in Dhivehi League Qualification zone 9.

They played in President’s Cup and unlike last year none of the rivals was able to beat them by more than 10 goals this year. Last year Valencia beat them 10-1 in Dhivehi League followed by Hurriyya 12-1. And many still believes it’s a riddle so hard to solve and find how Valencia and Hurriyya managed to do that.

IFC played only 21 matches this year and they won 8 (38%), drew 4 (19%) and lost 9 matches (43%). Last year they played 25 matches and managed to win 8 (32%), draw 6 (24) and were defeated in 11 games (44%).

IFC scored 37 goals (includes two own goals scored by opponents in Dhivehi League) and conceded 33 in this season, which gives an average of 1.76 goals per match. Last year it was worse, where they scored only 38 and conceded 66 giving an average of 1.5 goals per match in their 25 appearances.

Top Scorers

Shamveel Gasim is really the captain fantastic of IFC this year scoring 12 goals for the club made him IFC’s top scorer this year. Newly joined Mukhthar scored 7 and Eugene scored 5 goals.

COMPLETE TABLE

Keys: MP - Matches played, W-Won, D-Drew, L-Lost, GF-Goals For, GA-Goals Against, GD-Goal Difference, W%-Win Percentage, L%-Lost Percentage, AG- Goals per match

NOTE: The above information only contains; Season Opening match, FA Cup (from Quarter Final stage) , Cup Winners Cup, AFC Cup, Dhivehi League Qualification Zone 9, Dhivehi League Qualification zone 1-8, Dhivehi League and President's Cup.

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