KARACHI: Pakistan’s hopes of qualifying for the tournament proper on Tuesday ended when they went 0-1 down against hosts Kyrgyzstan in their second Group B game of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup Qualifiers at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium in Bishkek.
Pakistan, who were in a must-win situation following a 0-1 loss against former champions Tajikistan in their opener, conceded the goal in the very first minute when striker David Bruce did the job, much to the jubilation of the home crowd.
This was the second win for Kyrgyzstan in the qualifiers as they had defeated Macau 1-0 in their opener at the same venue.
Pakistan, who had fielded home-grown striker Mohammad Mujahid in place of Denmark-based unfit Hasan Bashir, had to pay the price for conceding the early goal as the hosts did well to defend the thin lead till final whistle.
Pakistan, looking for an equaliser, created several opportunities, but they failed to beat Kyrgyzstan’s keeper Matiash Pavel. The home gloveman smartly handled shots from Kaleemullah and Mohammad Adil.
Pakistan’s goalkeeper Yousuf Butt, who was again given the chance in place of skipper Jaffar Khan, also saved Pakistan from a few blows as he bravely negotiated the fiery attempts from Sharipov and David Bruce.
Pakistan’s midfield, though, did not look impressive as Zavisa Milosavljevic had to field Faisal Iqbal in place of Yasir Afridi in the start of the second half and then sent Mohammad Naveed for England-based Adnan Ahmad in the 80th minute.
Saddam Hussain, who had also been sent in the dying moments against Tajikistan, was again fielded in place of Mujahid in the 79th minute but no change worked.
The ouster from the tournament raises questions about the future of Pakistan’s Serbian coach Zavisa Milosavlejvic, who has been serving since November 5, 2011, when he was brought in place of local coach Tariq Lutfi to train the team that featured in the SAFF Cup in India the very next month.
The below-par showing from the Greenshirts, having the support of five foreign-based players, must make it clear to the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) that they cannot raise a strong side even with foreign coaches, if they do not improve their domestic structure, which has been unable to produce quality players.
Pakistan will now be going for a consolation win when they lock horns on Thursday (tomorrow) with Macau who have also lost both their matches.
Meanwhile, in the other game of the day, Tajikistan consolidated their chances of qualifying for the next year’s tournament proper when they crushed Macau 3-0. This took them to six points with plus 4 goal-average.
All the three goals came in the second half. Midfielder Ismoilov Jamshed struck in the 56th minute and injury time and Ergashev Jahongir scored in the 82nd minute.
Tajikistan will face Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, which will decide the group winners.
Myanmar, Palestine and Afghanistan have already qualified for the next year’s finals to be held in the Maldives.
Maldives have also been given direct entry into the tournament as the hosts.
Group E slots carrying Philippines, Cambodia, Turkmenistan and Brunei Darussalam will begin from Friday in Manila.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePZ7Kp85RzI[/youtube]
Group B
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tajikistan |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | 6 |
 Kyrgyzstan |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 6 |
 Pakistan |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | −2 | 0 |
 Macau |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 0 |
On the last matchday (21 March):
- Tajikistan will qualify if they do not lose to Kyrgyzstan.
- Kyrgyzstan will qualify if they do not lose to Tajikistan.
Thus qualifier proved that Pakistan needs to improve domestic structure in order to strengthen national team.
I think retain the coach as he is now familiar with Pakistani team and he must be given a chance. I have seen the game and the Pakistani Football team looked improved than they were in the past but i think they were unlucky at the same time in some instances. Removing Zavisa will not help but rather increasing the funding and giving more exposure will help us actually.
What can be done that Zavisa will be given a role to groom local talent and with increased funding another new coach for our team could be hired. We need not one or two but many Foreign coaches to improve our structure of the football.
Moreover i think the offer of Qatar to Pakistani Team should be availed totally and if any Foreign Coach is not willing to come to Pakistan then he could be based in Qatar to train our team.
Yes don’t change the coach at the moment, remember we lost 4-0 to Kyrgyzstan under Salman Sharida in world cup qualifying so yesterday’s results is far better than that one.
http://www.footballdatabase.eu/football.coupe.kirghizistan.pakistan.21496.en.html
I think not a bad result while considering that match was against host. well played. As I mentioned, Pakistan need to harvest footballing passion among masses at least there should be 5-8 crore must follow football. See the options how to do that. Play the sensitive card for the improvement game. Play with Indian in neutral venues with Gulf regions
I agree with the view of Naeem Awan and Noman Ajmal. The results are not as bad as they were previously against the same oppositions. Milosavljevic must be retained. under his coaching, Pakistan football is progressing although the pace is slow. These two defeats however has exposed the domestic league structure weaknesses very clearly.
Pakistan gave a close fight to Central asian teams. Our team needs a quality forward who has ability to score goals and a solid midfield that can keep proper possion of ball and great passing ability. Our domestic structure needs to improve alot if our football has to make strong progress. Moreover, substancial investment is needed inorder build better playing facilities and develop more good players. These days sports are played by scientific mind set and proper tactics. This coach has to co-ordinate to players. Coach is trying his level best but it is also upto players to deliever as well. Coach needs 3-4 years to produce better results. If just fired after 1-2 years then it is unfair and how can we expect team to perform. Lutfi needs to keep his mouth shut as himself failed to deliver, this his past results speak off. More friendlies needs to planed out before such a major event. Pakistan should try to score more than 5 goals against Macau so it can bow out with consulation.
100% agreed with you.
The coach should be given atleast 4 to 5 year time.Apart of major event’s preparation PFF should provided alot of international teams starting from weak towards stronger opponent.Pff should provide atleast 8 to 10 international friendlies so that players can attain rythem.
Above all domestic structure needs alot of improvement and better facilities to the players
Totally agreed with you point. Its Our football team really needs to do.
All good comments here, but the question is that will the PFF learn from their mistakes, or will they fire Zavisa?
PFF can arrange friendlies with teams like Nepal, Iraq, Afghanistan, Brunei, Bhutan, Macau etc. First try to beat similar ranked teams and also experiment against them.
When the team makes progress then they can find better opponents.
This is a step by step process, and will take time,
Patience is also required, and improvement of the domestic structure as well.
It will also help if a few of the domestic team players can get into a club abroad, in countries like Nepal, India, or Bangladesh. Maybe even Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, or Thailand.