SPORTS WORLD: 14th Asian Cup Football 2006: Pakistan lose to UAE despite valiant fight-back

The strong United Arab Emirates (UAE) team came from behind to defeat a resilient Pakistan in the 14th Asian Cup Qualifier (Group-C) played at Abu Dhabi. It was the sixth and final match for both the outfits in the qualifying round.
The UAE managed to win four matches and drew one during their six games and having goal counts 11-6. They entered the final phase with 13 points, while Pakistan, losing all the six matches against the Arabian teams, finished fourth with 4-22 goal counts.
Despite valiant fight back, Pakistan lost all the six matches against the UAE.
The way Pakistan showed stubborn display against the Asian powerhouses -- UAE, Oman and Jordan -- is laudable as Bahraini trainer Salman Sharida's efforts paid off.
Soccer enthusiasts in the country give credit to Sharida, who helped Pakistan, for the first time in the 58-year football history of Pakistan, win a gold medal abroad. In fact Sharida is the first foreign coach, who is striving to build Pakistan football team a real winning squad.
Previously, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has tried English, German, Brazilian, Hungarian, Slovakian and Chinese coaches, but none of them produced such a magnificent result.
As regards Pakistan's performance against the UAE in the 14th Asian Cup Qualifier (Group-C), it was a brave feat to challenge the tough rivals, who are far better in FIFA ranking than Pakistan. Pakistan ranked 162 against Oman (63), UAE (91) and Jordan (99), but still they showed fine display despite limitations, and considering the facilities and earnings of an Arabian soccer player.
In the closely fought match, Pakistan put up spirited efforts and took lead in the first half of the game, but strong UAE outfit, the 1990 World Cup qualifiers, levelled the score barely nine minutes into the second half.
Soon after the start of second half, the UAE scored another goal, putting the green shirters under pressure. But Pakistan levelled the score through former national skipper Tanveer Ahmed's 67th minute goal.
In the 58th minute, another goal from UAE captain and striker Mohammed Omar, who was a key player in the Al Ain side that won the inaugural AFC Champions League title, put the seal on resilient Pakistan's march to the victory, shattering Pakistan's hopes for their first point of the campaign.
Pakistan captain Muhammad Essa, scorer of the opening goal in the 4-1 defeat to the UAE in the first leg played in Karachi in March, teed up right-full back Naveed Akram, who fired Pakistan into an unlikely 1-0 lead.
TEAM SPIRIT LAUDED:
PFF Secretary General Muhammad Arshad Khan Lodhi, commenting on Pakistan's performance against the UAE, said Pakistan needed to further improve their tackling and getting the ball on first attempt.
The PFF Secretary General was, however, happy over the team's performance in tense 90-minutes match, and admired captain Muhammad Essa, vice-captain Adeel Ahmed, new comers Muhammad Rasool, Muhammad Waseem, besides four defenders Tanveer Ahmed, Naveed Akram, Muhammad Imran and Samar Ishaq.
The way they struck the goals was simply magnificent and it was a fact that Sharida had trained the team according to modern techniques of the game, which required stamina and running for full backs to surge into the rival territory and steering the ball into net.
About the midfielders and strikers, Lodhi said though they missed some chances, keeper Jaffar Khan and back four braved the tough opposition, conceding just one goal that too appeared in closing minutes.
He said that tackling and snatching the ball when the situation is 50-50 were the areas that needed more improvement.
About coach Salman Sharida of Bahrain, Lodhi appreciated his game plan, which helped Pakistan to score two valuable goals. He said Sharida's strategy to field the team in 4-5-1 formation with skipper Muhammad Essa, the lone front-runner. Despite that formation, having limitations in attack, Pakistan came out from Abu Dhabi's field with pride.
Congratulating the team for its stubborn and high-spirited display at Abu Dhabi after gold at Colombo in the 10th South Asian Games, Lodhi was confident the young Pakistan team would continue their positive play in Doha's 15th Asian Games 2006 and two-legged Beijing Olympic Qualifier 2007 against Singapore and seventh SAFF Championship next year. QATAR ASIAD: Pakistan will be facing Japan on November 29 in their opener of ASIAD at Qatar, followed by the second encounter against Democratic People's Republic of Korea on December 3, while the third match will be played against Turkmenistan on December 6. The 18-day event will conclude on December 15.
ENCOURAGING: Former Pakistan skippers, praising the performance of Salman Sharida, said it was encouraging that Pakistan were among 28 teams, out of 46 teams affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). This was a rare achievement of the PFF and one can easily say that Pakistan's performance was better than India and Bangladesh in the event, they said, and gave the credit to PFF President Faisal Saleh Hayat, who was doing fine job for Pakistani footballers, administrators, coaches and referees. His decisions, they said, would put Pakistan into their deserving spot in future.
29TH OLYMPIC GAMES SOCCER:
Now the PFF is all set to take on Singapore in the qualifying phase of the 29th Olympic Games Football Tournament next year. Singapore will host the first leg on February 7, 2007, while the return leg will be arranged by the PFF on February 14, 2007. The winner of the match will appear in the second round (Group A) along with Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
The qualifying format sees the 20 lowest ranked teams having to clear the preliminary round hurdle before joining the top 14 seeds, who are exempt from the preliminary round. The 24-team second qualifying round, which has been split into six groups of four each, runs through February 28 to June 6, 2007, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the final round which will be played in three groups, having four teams in each group.
The final home-and-away round will be held from August 22 to November 21 2007, with the three group winners, representing Asia at the Beijing Olympic Games. China had already qualified as hosts.
THE FOLLOWING 14 TEAMS HAVE QUALIFIED DIRECTLY FOR THE SECOND ROUND:
Iraq, Korea Republic, Japan, Bahrain, Iran, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Malaysia, DPR Korea, Syria and Qatar.