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Victory wins, Mauroof is delighted to face New Radiant
27 October 2005
One celebration not enough : Hurriyya players celebrating their first goal
but went down again in four minutes
Male',
MALDIVES -
Hurriyya tast another defeat and this time it cost them to go out of ongoing President's cup. Victory stunned Hurriyya by 2-1 in tonight's game, thanks to Denmark striker Henrikson, who scored the two goals for Victory to take them through to the final.
In the first half, none of the team was able to dominate the game, but Huriyya tried to dominated the first half and Victory was very good in their counter attacks. Victory scored their opening goal from a counter attack organized by Dhona and Fazeeh. Fazeeh's cross was shot into the goal by Henriksen.
After the goal Huriyya's play improved a lot and took the ball possession to them. But the shots on the goal was very minimal. Due to their poor finishing they were not able to make a good attack on Victory's goal.
In the second half Hurriyya tried hard to dominate the game and Victory started to use their counter attacks which was seen very difficult for Hurriyya defence line to deal with. But Hurriyya leveled in the 52nd minute from a strike came from Husnee but four minutes later Henriksen scored the second goal which was a fumble by Huriyya's defense. This is the 85th goal scored by Victory in this season and they have conceded 25 goals so far.
In the post match conference, Mauroof (Maatey) was delighted with the win.
"We are very happy that we won. We deserve today's win. In the whole season we played a very good attacking football. But we were unlucky that we don't have any gold to wear in this season " He said answering a question by Maldivesoccer about their 85 goals in this season.
Mauroof was delighted that he had to face his childhood rivals, New Radiant in the finals. It's been a long time that New Radiant and Victory didn't face in a final. New Radiant beat Victory by 3-1 in 1999's cup winners cup final.
"It has been long time since Victory faced New Radiant in a final. When I played football, When ever there is a final between New Radiant and Victory the match gets a special attention and when we were the kings of Maldivian football we dominated each of this final with that spirit. I hope that the same spirit will be there from the supporters and the players"
For the final, Mauroof expects good football and he said the team with least mistakes will win.
"I hope to see good football in the finals. Who makes less mistakes will win. The match would fluctuate a lot depending on the ball possession. Each team has match winners. But we got less experienced players. Imran is the only one who is in the national team where as they have a lot of players." Mauroof said about New Radiant.
"I expects nice good football. It would be a fantastic final match" He said.
Huriyya's coach. Mr Goffa in his last press conference this year said he was delighted to coach for a Maldivian team.
"I am very happy for the chance given by FAM and Huriyya. It was a very nice thing. Maldivian football is in the good move. It showed a lot of progress this year"
He was also delighted about the performance shown by the players.
"I expected 120% from the players and they showed what I want. We had more of the ball. We were unfortunate. I am ofcourse sad but they did what they could do."
When asked about the final he said that it would be a marvelous game.
"It would be a very strong final. Victory is in a good form now and they are a little bit unlucky. New Radiant is in top form too. So it will be a battle of two of the top teams." Goffa said.
Henrikson of Victory was named tonight's man of the match.
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