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Victory lifts President's cup
31 October 2005
VICTORY smiles : Victory players and officials with tournament trophy
Male',
MALDIVES -
Victory sports club wins President's cup a while ago after beating their rival New Radiant by 1-0. The only goal of the match came from Ismail Mohamed in the 37th minute of the game.
Both teams created chances to score more goals, but Victory's defending attitude in the second half prevent New Radiant scoring a goal.
Ibrahim Fazeel of New Radiant won the fair play player of the tournament, Imran Mohamed of Victory named as the best goal keeper, Henrikson of Victory was the best player and New Radiant was the fair play team of the tournament.
Victory started the game with good attacking options. With three strikers attacking the best defense line of Maldives Victory got their reward in the 37' minute when henriksen gave a free pass to Ismail Mohamed. He was all alone in the penalty area and his shot braced the cross bar and went straight to the goal.
In the second half, Victory used time wasting tactics, but New Radiant who changed their midfielders and defenders and brought strikers could not do much. They were not very organised in the midfield. Victory's defense which was the poorest was very tough and they did not give any space for New Radiant.
In the post news conference New Radiant's assistant coach Niyaz said he was very delighted about the players performance though he was very sad about the result.
"I am very sad about the result. But the players did everything they could and I am very happy with that"
Niyaz also added that this season was very good for them.
"We wanted to achieve two goals. To go to the second round of the AFC cup and to win the FA Cup so we could go to the AFC cup next year. We achieved that, that's why the management sent the foreign player and the release of coach to the National team." Niyaz said.
Niyaz also said that the goal was not only the mistake of the defenders but it is a mistake of all the players.
"The mistake started from the forward line. And I don't want to blame anyone"
Meanwhile the champion coach Mauroof was very delighted about the match.
"This is a result because of the good performance of the players. There was a good confidence boost from the first match of the tournament."
He also thanked the supporters for their confidence in the management.
"I am very happy about the supporters for having the confidence in us. There has been critics of coach and specific players. But I urged everyone to leave it and then continue the play"
Mauroof also added that they played a very good season this time but they did not have the "luck" factor
"We played very good football. The same level which New Radiant performed but the only thing we lacked is the "luck" factor. If we had that we could have won more than this trophy" Mauroof said.
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