Nepal deserved to win their first match of the Sixth South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship but the team missed lots of opportunities. Around 100 Nepali fans present at the stadium were disappointed when powerful shots of Bijay Gurung, Anil Gurung and Chetan Ghimire could not find the back of the net. However, Yogesh Shrestha´s ´Golden Debut´ at least saved Nepal from defeat.
Maldives took advantage of Nepal´s weak defense to net a goal after a depressing goalless first half. Ahmed Tariq scored the first goal with the help of a cross from Jamil Mohammad. Tariq utilized the opportunity to score a one-versus-one goal from the box in the 61st minute as he remained unchecked by the Nepali defenders.
Maldives seemed obvious to win the match after the goal as they had dominated the entire first half but Nepal didn´t delay in equalizing the score. Coach Krishna Thapa´s decision to replace Yogesh for Bijay was worthwhile as he helped score a goal in his debut match. Jumanu headed a pass from Yogesh into the net in the 69th minute. This was Jumanu´s seventh international goal and his third in the SAFF Championship.
Earlier, Bijay and Anil had missed an opportunity each to score in the first half. Bijay´s good shot missed the post by a little margin while Maldives´ goalkeeper Mohammad Imran saved a powerful shot by Anil. Anil made a mistake by not passing the ball to Chetan Ghimire as there were no defenders near the post.
Nepal were unexpectedly able to keep Maldives under pressure in the second half as Nepal created four good opportunities to score in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Chetan´s shot from Anjan´s pass missed narrowly in the beginning while his second attempt in the 52nd minute was blocked by Maldives´ defenders. Sandip Rai´s long shot went a few inches above the post. Nepal could not record a glorious victory as Anil Gurung´s powerful shot just before he was replaced by Santosh Sahukhala did not enter the net. But Yogesh´s debut helped Nepal put a brake on a series of defeats from Maldives since 1999.
Maldives had taken Nepal lightly as they had defeated Nepal 4-1 a year ago in their home ground. With this draw, Nepal were able to upset not only Maldives but other teams as well.
“We did not look at Nepal as a weak team but our players like Ali Ashfaque couldn´t perform well. The next match will tell which team is better,” said Maldives´ coach Istavan Urbanyi.
Nepal´s Rohit Chand was assigned to check Ali Ashfaque, who was a Asian Player of the Year 2008 nominee. Ashfaque couldn´t perform well as Rohit fulfilled his responsibility properly. Accepting the fact Urbanyi said, “Other players should have used the opportunity while Ashfaque was under strict marking, but our players couldn´t.”
Nepali coach Thapa was satisfied with the performance of the team but was disappointed with the result. “We should have won the match as the players had fared well, but the referee´s decision was unfair today,” he said. Thapa claimed that Jumanu´s second goal was not offside.
Sagar replaces Rakesh
Sagar Thapa who is regarded as a defender of the last line replaced Rakesh Shrestha as the captain of Nepali team in Saturday´s match against Maldives as Rakesh could not play the game for some unspecified reasons.
When Sagar was just 19 years old, he opted to join the Third SAFF Championship held in the same stadium six years ago but he couldn´t participate due to jaundice. Sagar was considered as the replacement of Rakesh while he was still a teenager because of his impressive speed, which he still maintains.
He finally made it to the sixth edition of the SAFF and his performance did not let anyone feel the absence of Rakesh. “My happiness has no limits as I got the opportunity to lead the national team as the captain,” Sagar said and added, “I have played as a captain earlier too, but today was special as I was able to fulfill my responsibility.”
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