| |
Who will lead Maldives in Karachi?
02 December 2005
Uploaded: 02.12.2005, 1:50AM
Male' Maldives -
The question of captaincy is now a hot one. Who will lead Maldives in Karachi? Assad, Imran, Ali Umar or someone else? Assad might be the most capable player to wear the captaincy band, but the decision is yet to come.
Maldives national team will reach Karachi on tomorrow and may be the final decision on captaincy will take place there.
In last three SAFF Championships, Maldives never had same captain. At first Ibrahim Rasheed (Andharey) lead Maldives to the finals of first SAFF Championship, second under the captaincy of Mohamed Ibrahim (Kappi), Maldives won bronze in Goa, 1999. Then in 2003, under Shah Ismail's captaincy or better say Mohamed Nizam's (Thoddoo) captaincy Maldives lost the gold on the spot. Shah was the captain, but he started most of the matches as a substitute.
After that, Assad wore the band and led Maldives to the world cup qualifying 2006 and gained some unexpected and unforgettable results. A draw against 2002 world cup semi finalist, South Korea, a win against Vietnam helped Maldives to climb up to a position they never reached before in FIFA ranking, during that time Maldives beat all SAARC countries in FIFA Ranking.
After the qualifying, Maldives is again dressing up for a major soccer event. The biggest change is the coach. Portugal born Gomez who handed over the band to Assad is gone, now it's Bulgarian born Stoikov. Who will be his favourite player?
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
GROUP A : Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan
GROUP B : Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Nepal
....................................................................................................................
Send your comment about this article, [email protected]
|
|
