Maldives lost on penalties

So that is it. That ends a miserable two months for Maldives. In three tournaments we have earned the dubious distinction of semi-final chokers, pricked our pride to an all-time low. Most depressing of all, we are defeated by all member countries in the region except Bhutan. Don't forget they too came close to scaring us in the world cup qualifier. So much for the world cup level coach, this will go down as the worst chapter in our football history.

Feels sorry for Easa. He's been great in this tournament. My support for all the players and the team. Proper preparation as a team would have made things different. I also feel Herbert needs more Maldivian coaching staff on his side to help him understand Maldivian football and players. He's a great coach but he needs to accept that he would need more help to understand the context he's operating in.

Can anyone tell me who is another foreign man with this coach Rickie Herbert , he looks like he's from some other community,oooops sorry

Much of the blame should go to FAM, not the coach. They mask their own shortcomings and ineptness by appointing a coach when there are few weeks to a tournament. Isn’t it the case for the last five years? That does not give a newly-appointed foreign coach enough time to learn the players and at the same time players don’t get the time to adept to his system. How many times this has been said by the people close to the football family. Has they ever done anything to scrutinise into the matter and prioritise the measures necessary to arrest a scuttled preparation. It is the same old stuff. A hastily arranged 10-day camp in Thailand or Malaysia, even there the promised friendlies never materialise, play a couple of games against lower division teams. A generation of talent has been wasted in SAFF Championship on this mismanagement. So when we point a finger of blame at the coach it is important remember the problem lies elsewhere. They try, as always, to deflect the finger of blame and make it appear as if it is all coach’s inadequacies

I Have lost all faith in current Coach. By sidelining assistant coaches he does not understand Maldivian football. While he is pleased with yesterdays performance the fact is Bangladesh, Nepal are teams that we easily beat. While they have improved and moving forward our level of football is going down. And he have not answered the question why he did not get this team ready for the tournament by playing the team in Bangladesh tournament. I think success at the world-cup got to his head too early and ruined his career. He needs to come down to earth.

May be we should look at the bigger picture. The root cause lies at the club-level. Most of the clubs do not follow a strict guideline as far as their players’ off-field discipline is concerned. They eat what they want when they want. They smoke like there is no tomorrow. Sleep is not a priority. As for the league its standard is low with three teams on an even keel easily able to drub the rest of the pack. Training sessions are never taken seriously. Players don’t train so much and most of them do not apply much of an effort and in fact cheat their way into the team, the physical drills given an easy pass while head coach and his coaching staff are lost in the laughers of something funny happened the previous night. Clubs are barely able to survive on the meagre funds; their hands are tied as far running the club on a professional basis. So when these players join the national team for an upcoming tournament they lack necessary match fitness and a coach brought at a short notice does not know where to start. They don’t look like players who are first division regulars, some looks so thin and frail, some out of shape. When the real thing happens, these players are brushed off the ball easily; they don’t have the confidence to play their natural game. Enmeshed in a web of kicking the ball about, from defence to forward, not able to make three or four passes, run like headless chicken and in the end run into blind an alley. Shape and tactics are lost. Unless an individual brilliance of player does not bail out them they are beaten fair and square. That is 21st Century Maldives football and the health of national team.

The top hierarchy at FAM will be laughing at us. Literary. They have been making a fool of us at every tournament. They will say okay, you people invest a lot emotionally every time national team plays, but we the fans are really not entitled to anything and they are not essentially answerable to us, even if the team under-achieves. That it is none of our business and they are not accountable to anybody. Well, that is exactly what it seems, the answer that permeates from their defending silence, on the performance of the team, of coach’s suitability. If it were another football-mad country their football association might have been a bit more forthcoming to pacify their aggrieved fans. They may promptly have news conferences on their future plans. They will take stock of the situation, to introspect for the corrective measures. In Maldives sports, an end of a tournament mean that is it: the end of it, howsoever disastrous it is, till the next one, for the vicious cycle to repeat again. Again.