Coach Stewart delighted with performance

Sep 02, 2016 - 01:13:31 | Shifan hassan
Coach Stewart in the match against Bangladesh. PHOTO / IBRAHIM FAID

Male', MALDIVES - Maldives national team coach Darren Stewart expressed his delight as Maldives thrashed Bangladesh 5-0 in a friendly match last night.

In Stewart's first official match as the coach of Maldives, Bangladesh was outclassed by a spirited Maldives side. Striker Asadulla Abdulla grabbed a hatrick, while Hamzath Mohamed and Ismail Easa also got on the score sheet.

"I am delighted with the effort the players put in," the experienced Australian Stewart said after the match. "Each player performed very well. The result was beyond what i expected."

Stewart highlighted that Maldives was under pressure for the first 20 minutes of the game, but Maldives took controlled as soon as they settled in.

Maldives is gearing up for the Asian Cup Qualifying match against Laos, which is scheduled for next week.

"We will celebrate tonight. From tomorrow (today) we will be ready for Laos," Stewart said.

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Reality on Sep 02
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There is a limit to the number of tickets that you can sell to an away team. Why did FAM do such a stupid thing that you have more away supporters than home supporters? Was their real intention to fill the stadium to full capacity? Or just forgot FIFA's mandatory rule?
Imma on Sep 03
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Rule only apply to qualifiers and official tournaments. It is not uncommon to see away fans outnumbering home fans during friendlies, especially in places with high expatriate populations, such as USA and Qatar. Personally, I really liked what I saw. I think the atmosphere created by the Bangladeshi supporters was awesome and gave the Maldivian players a real challenge to impose themselves in the game, which could only be beneficial. Anyway, would you rather have seen a half-empty stadium again? Most of these Bangladeshis work their socks off all week and have never seen their national football team play in the flesh, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them. Also, I don't think this kind of scenario could've been possible if we played any other nation other than Bangladesh. I hope this is a wake-up call to the so-called Maldivian football "fans", who often fail to turn up to support their team and when they do, spends 90 minutes just sitting there as though they're watching a movie on television, or taking selfies. That wall of noise created by Bangladeshi fans reminded me of the atmosphere at Galolhu Dhandu during the early 2000s World Cup qualifiers.
commentator on Sep 03
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Would you give a source for your claim there have to be a limit. I think the FAM could limit number of tickets sold to away team but they dont have to. All we know this could be a world first an away fans dominating (for National team) and FAM did not expect this. Its failure on Maldives fans that they did not go to support. And I hope its a wake up call for concerned authorities of the impeding problems arising from large number of undocumented illegal workes here.
Mohamed sharin on Sep 04
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Maldives is improving because of this coach now our team have to defeat Laos My prediction is first leg Maldives 6-1 and 2nd leg 1-3 Aggregate score 9-2 Maldives could win like against Bangladash GOOD LUCK TEAM 🇲🇻👍🏻!

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