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| June 16, 2008 | Monday | Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1429 |
Maldives clinch SAFF Championship
COLOMBO, June 15: A powerful 25-metre drive by Mukhthar Naseer just three minutes from the final whistle saw Maldives brushing aside holders India in the final of the seventh SAFF Championship at the Sugathadasa Stadium here on Saturday night.
Becoming the fourth team to win SAFF’s showpiece event was like sweet revenge for the co-hosts after having lost 0-1 to India earlier in the tournament. The nearly five thousand Maldivian supporters in the stadium went wild.
India were gold medallists in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2005, while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh won the event in 1993 and 2003, respectively. Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan have yet to earn the top spot in the 15-year-old event.
“I don’t know how to express my feelings. This is the happiest moment of my life!” said the goal-scoring hero Mukhthar Naseer. An important player in Valencia’s squad, he had a superb season last year, claiming the best player award in the Cup Winners Cup while being included among the top five players of the season.
The first half of the match was equally balanced with both Maldives and India wasting all the opportunities coming their way to score the opener.
Ali Ashfaag was unstoppable in the half and suffered a serious injury when Indian defender Anwar brought him down inside India’s half.
The Maldivian defenders played well, holding the speedy strikers of India but the nervous men in red gave wrong passes ending the first half 0-0.
The second half saw a totally different Maldivian side, on full attack. Their keeper Imran too got chances to demonstrate his capabilities but the Indian keeper on the other side didn’t even have time to breathe as Ali Ashfaag, Ismail Mohamed, Mukhthar Naseer, Ahmed Thoriq and Ibrahim Fazeel’s deadly attacks became just too much as Maldives kept knocking on India’s door to finally succeed three minutes before full time when Mukhthar Naseer fired a thunderbolt outside the Indian penalty area giving no time to India’s keeper to save the ball, which got glued on the net.—Agencies
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