Maziya 1-1 Selangor: Vital points dropped

Mar 11, 2014 - 09:45:24 | Shimaz Ali
Selangor players celebrating when they took the lead against Maziya just before the half time.

Male', MALDIVES - Maziya SRC's coach Ismail Mahefooz (Imma) said that Maziya lost vital 2 points, as they were held to 1-1 draw by 10 men Selangor in the Group F of AFC Cup today.

Selangor took the lead through Australian Defender Peter in the closing stages of the first half but Maziya equalized when skipper Ahmed Mohamed converted a spot kick early in the second half.

Maziya was awarded the penalty when striker Asadulla Abdulla was brought down in the box by Selangor's goalkeeper Mohamed Hamsani. Hasmani was shown a straight red card for the challenge.

"We lost two vital points. Selangor are stronger than us but today we could have beaten them," Imma said after the match.

"The main reason we could not win the match was that our key players did not perform to their maximum. I am disappointed with the result because winning home games are important."

Imma was forced to replace key midfielders Ahmed Mohamed and Ibrahim Shiyam in the second half after the pair displayed a poor performance.

"Even though Selangor played the majority of the second half with 10 men, we couldn't take advantage of that. We had to substitute our playmaker and attacking midfielder as both of them were not performing well. Our game is mainly based on the midfield but today in the key moments we needed to build attack in the midfield but it was ineffective," Imma said.

Selangor's Australian coach Mehmet Durakovic said that he was happy with the players performance today.

"I am very happy with the performance. We played the majority of the second half with 10 men. We made one mistake and it cost us 3 points. We should have got 3 points today. The players worked hard today. We got so many chances in the first half. It should have been 3-0 in the first half," Durakovic said.

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footballmad on Mar 13
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watched some extended highlights on the web: The Vietnamese are a very good side and Maaziya's defence played extremely well until around the 70th minute. I agree with Imma that after that point, the players ran out of steam.
toos on Mar 13
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after the game in Vetnam imma said team played good????how can you talk this if your team lost 5-1 and now with one player more second half you cant take advantage and win against Selangor.i think with the way of thinking of coach the team cant do anything.lets see after game with Persipura what he will talk.
Imma on Mar 13
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Maziya looked a bit rusty at times, which is to be expected when the players haven't played much competitive football in 6 months. I heard Imma and his coaching staff yelling at the players to hurry up in the last 20 minutes. Simply put, the players looked incapable of raising the tempo. FAM should organize the football season to begin somewhere in January, so that the domestic season will run through until the final of the AFC Cup. That way, players will be match fit for the AFC Cup. Leagues in India, Malaysia and Indonesia began 2 months ago yet Maldives is not going to begin for another 3 months! You just can't help but wonder what will be the state of the national team players during the AFC Challenge Cup.

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