KARACHI: Senior football players will not be included in the team for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualifiers that start on March 20 in Malaysia, according to the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).
“We will carry on with our under-21 squad that is already preparing for the 2012 Olympic qualifiers,” said PFF Secretary Ahmed Lodhi. “We will not make huge changes in the team for the Challenge Cup, but there can be an addition of one or two senior players.”
The under-21 team will be playing against Malaysia and Palestine this month, and according to the PFF, it will be difficult for head coach Tariq Lutfi’s to train senior players in such a short period.
Lodhi also pointed out that the captain for the senior team Jaffar Khan will not be participating in the Challenge Cup.
Pakistan are placed in Group B along with India, Turkmenistan and Nepal in the qualifiers as the team bids for a place in the AFC Asian Cup that happens once in four years.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2011.
I’m a bit conflicted about using the U21 team for the Challenge Cup. Its good in that the players should have good chemistry after having trained and played 8+ matches together in the 3 months prior to the Challenge Cup qualifiers.
However, some important players such as Arif Mehmood and Yasir Afridi will miss out due to being older than 21, and that is not good. Also not sure how this will affect the inclusion of older foreign players such as Adnan Ahmed and Atif Bashir.
As long as they accommodate the necessary reinforcements from abroad, fair enough.
No just those but likes of Mohammed Ahmed and Yasir Afridi are must inclusions and perhaps the other Mahmood from WAPDA. Its good to keep these boys together and hopefully develop them for longer run.
Some other senior players didnt have the best of seasons such as Aziz or Farooq Shah…but Rasool did well and Nasrullah etc…question would be how fit are they come 10th march with only 10days to go?
Remember we will playing against Challenge cup winners India and 2010 finalists Turkmenistan and it aint gonna be easy so you will need the experience, strength and depth. Not to forget the foreign reinforcements as Ali mentioned.
Yeah, basically I would want to include Adnan Ahmed, Atif Bashir, Yasir Afridi, Muhammed Ahmed, Arif Mehmood, Mahmood of WAPDA, Nomi Martin, and maybe Nasrullah. These players should also be called up after the first leg against Malaysia and allowed to train with the team and play in the second friendly against Palestine, unless another foreign tour is scheduled prior to March 20.
Unfortunte as Challenge cup is qualifier of next ASIA CUP. Why PFF is taking it lightly. Pff must also start u16 and u19 camp now under siddiq qadri, the most intelligent among future coachas ad alredy proved his genius
this is a pathetic decision to say the least.
Not really. They have no other choice, considering the time constraints. The only solution would be for Tariq Lutfi to identify which senior players he wants to call up and then give them a fitness plan which they can follow until the camp for the Challeng Cup starts.
abdul sid, i stand by my words, would you not play BETTER players???
Not if they are unfit and can only join camp for a few days. They will upset the chemistry and balance of the team. But Tariq Lutfi has said that he might include some senior players for the Palestine friendlies, so then it may be fine.
Im sure he will include some seniors like Arif etc. cus in one of the articles he was sayin Arif’s the kind of player we need or something like that. He better include Atif and Adnan, I’ll slap a prostitute if they dont. ATIF BASHIR IS A MUST
this team needs minimum 4 new players for u-23s.
Who would you add and who would you drop?
I almost 100% agree to abdulsidd. Muhammad Ahmad gets my vote. He must be in national XI.
Look who should be there from national team in the current U21..
Mid field team needs Muhammad Ahmad where as in defense yo need some guy with tall height as soon as possible. If Atif bashir can play ..he is will be great.. and Zeeshan rehman bcz now he can give more time to this team..
rest you need one brilliant striker at front line.. if we want to play attacking game..
Aneel Azeem is good at that position with kaleem
kuch be acha nahi hoo saktta agar humaree saat tariq lotfi jisse coach hoon tu
Agree with abdulsidd, these 2 or 3 players needs to be added in the team & must be invloved in the friendly games with Palestine & others if any.
Players like Atif Bashir, Adnan Ahmed & Zeeshan Rehman !!!!!!!
Rest is fine as there will be a good chemistry developed between the rest of the U-21 team by then!!!!