| Who will take the responsiblity of this failure
15 December 2005
Uploaded: 15.12.2005, 08:15 AM
India's goal scorer Manju (left) celebrating his historical goal
against Maldives on Wednesday (AFP)
Male, MALDIVES - “If we couldn’t win this time, FAM must investigate the reason”. This is a statement by one of my friends soon after Maldives booked a place in the semi final of SAFF championship. Hopes were high and many were curiously waiting to see their players wearing gold this time. But…
When our boys failed to beat India in the semi final after missing numerous chances, many have started to show their disappointment. Some believes the tactics applied by Stoikov was strong enough to beat Afghanistan, but not enough for Pakistan and India. Some believes the whole team is depending on strikers, especially on Ashfaag. Not surprisingly, many blamed the media as well for praising the players too early.
Looking at the comments received from visitors, almost everyone highlighted the lack of good midfield play and if I am not wrong some local soccer critics too talked about this issue, but our media almost ignored this matter and kept on praising the team and tried to prove this is the best national team in this region and we have the best striker in the region and in the continent. Yes! We held South Korea to a goalless draw and we beat Vietnem in the WC qualifying, but did it lead us to a win against Pakistan and India?
We, maldivesoccer.com, interviewed Stoikov about the midfield and he disagreed on people’s comment regarding this fragile department. We believe he is a mastermind, he knew what he was doing and he must have the authority to apply his tactics. But what if we could pressure more on that? What if we could keep on talking about the loop holes?
When we failed to achieve what we want, why are we coming up with so many bright ideas and so many complaints? Isn’t this funny? Let’s think deeply on what Stoikov said after they beat Afghanistan. “We don’t think about the result of previous match, we are thinking about the next match” he said. So, let’s think about the next match.
In sports, someone has to taste the defeat, so let’s believe this is our time to taste it, even though we are not willing to do so. Let’s make better plans from the mistakes of our last one.
Our complaints will not change the history, Manju was there all alone in the penalty area and he was so lucky to put the ball back into Maldives net. But we hope Football Association of Maldives (FAM) will at least talk about this defeat seriously and find the actual reason behind this failure. Many fans are waiting curiously to hear that, just like the way they were waiting to see the players coming with gold. They want to know who is responsible for this.
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