The British coach was pleased to qualify for the final four though he reserved his comments on the performance…
Nepal are the first team to book their spot in the final four of the competition as they finished on top of group B.“I’m delighted that we are in the semi-finals. It was hard work today against Pakistan. At half-time, we were leading. In the second half, Sandip gave away a penalty and then the players got edgy.
“We are in the semis and that was our aim at the start of the tournament. Now we have three days to recover before we play our next match.”
On being asked as to whom would he prefer to face in the semi-finals given that Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and India have an opportunity to qualify, Roberts dismissed the chances of the Island nation.
“I think it’s two. I was there yesterday (Sunday) and saw the games (of group A). It’s only Afghanistan and India. I’m Ok. We are in the semis.”
Nepal were the only side to have scored against Pakistan in the competition and Roberts stated that his former side have a decent bunch of players.
“I coached them and I know them well. A lot of the people here have dismissed them saying Pakistan will finish fourth. They have good players.
“I was shocked when I saw Kaleem Ullah play in the middle. He is a better centre-forward and when he won the penalty, I knew we had a problem.
“He is a strong lad, takes people on and had a couple of decent runs in the first half. Their coach ( Zavisa Milosavljevic) helped me out.”
I sense that Graham Robert’s comments which are aimed at Zavisa are probably a case of sour grapes.
That said, however, I agree with his assessment of Kaleemullah. Although Kaleem has many critics in the Pakistani football community, I feel that any coach, including Graham Roberts, would keep him as a regular in the lineup. He was the Man of the Tournament for Pakistan, as far as I am concerned. He has always shown much potential and it seems that he will thrive under Zavisa, InshaAllah.
Saddam Hussain was another eye catching player as long as he was playing on the wing and not in the middle. The future is bright, InshaAllah.
Kaleemullah would not have been effective as a striker in this tournament because of Pakistan’s long ball style of play. No striker would have been effective like that. Always chasing and chasing and rarely having the ball at your feet to be able to create something from it.
its over, and will be a waste to think and cry, so PFF should look for short friendly tours and stick with the new coach, am pretty sure he is going to change it around and as for rob goes, he was a decent coach no doubt but again, we dont have him as a coach so lets not cry over, loudhy and saleh! get your politcs out of the field please and lets build a side who can challenge asian rivals atleast
everybody was waiting for Pak-India semi clash in this SAFF but as always our team never qualified. we have good defence M. Rizwan etc but our attack is full of s-h-i-t, I think its time Atif bashir moved forward as a Attacker.
Why Samar Ishaq took the penalty???? he almost missed it again. was that an international standard penalty kick?????
well he is the Player of the year for Pakistan and the good thing is that he did scored in the end. :D
Pakistan has showed improvement in few days and i think 2 years of new coach will bring much more As foreign players have showed good quality what Pakistan need is a foreign based midfielder and striker to lead the front line. Adnan Ahmad cross to Jadeed Khan is an example
The problem is every where in Pakistan football team regarding playing style, planing and strategy. Our players need to be played at right position and need to learn proper co-ordination. Also our players alway kick the ball in air and never seemed to make proper ground passes. So stupid was our playing style, it looked as if only forwards, defence and goal keeper exist, however midfield totally absent. Good thing was Pakistan did not chlose any match and showed strong defending. Overall big improvements are required like midfield needs to be functional and properly passing the ball to forwards. Forwards need to learn proper finishing and ability to score goals.
pakistan made a big mistake by releasing graham roberts as a coach
Pakistan cannot improved and win matches if Jaffer Khan & Samar Ishaq did not change their habit of long kicking and wasting ball which causing losing of possession and immediate counter attack on pakistani goal post. Due to this pakistani midfield become helpless and unable to make moves and attack.
In this tournament, it was seeming that other boys ignored Adnan and Atif and was not communicating and making passes with them. They were totally disconnected with other guys. Was it deliberately or not?
Causes of Failure of Paistan football Team:
(1) Politic’s destroy the grass root Talent and Purchi system keep deprive the deserving Player’s out of team e.g; clash & tussle between Mian Azhar lodhi group and Hafiz salman Butt & Faisal Saleh Group etc. in PFF Bad Management by incompitent people who have no sense of playing football e.g; ….Butt & Wahidi (for those who know pff officials pretty well).
(2) Poor Standard’s (old fashion method) of Selection in which all provinces have not given equall chance to participate alway’s preference is given to N.W.F.P & Baloochistan Provinces (Peshawar, Hizara, Lakimarwat, Quetta, Chamman, Ziyarat etc. and neglected the talent of Punjab province (only in Lahore many new emerging club’s are producing new & young talented player’s but unfortunately they have no way to reach PFF due to Purchi System or they are so poor) etc.
(3) in th past Coahing is not provided upto changing international standard’s (old fashion of treaning player’s e.g; just kick long kick’s, Player’s have no sense for creating off side trap for opponent team, Lack of playing in short passes which is the main weapon of a team in modern era, Lack of playing in set pieces, Lack of practicing of panalty kick taking) etc. they are not aware of Modern technic’s actually far away from reality of playing football.
Conclusion:
Playing football is an art, Jaffer Khan can hit only long kick’s but cannot convert those long kick’s into Goal’s, How long Sammar Ishaq and other defender’s can defense and sustain pressure if midfield and attacker’s forwardline continue to fail to hold the ball posession, why they are afraid to control the ball posession, why they don’t drible the ball in short passes & why they are afraid to score goal by long range effort.
If pakistan football team is playing football like this it cannot give required result’s to the whole nation till 2050. i am not critic, i apriciate the effort of unbalanced team but it is good that pakistan didn’t loose a match in SAFF champoinship but fail to qualify for semi’s, So good for nothing.
There is one thing for sure. You can’t develop football unless and until you improve the Club level football. That’s how the world developed their football skills. I mean we do have good players but their passing is even worse than 3rd Division League. All they do on the field is to defend or strike the ball real hard into the air. :(
and can somebody tell me why Muhammad Essa was not picked?