By Shahrukh Sohail, Chief Editor, Islamabad
Pakistan lost the first leg of their 2018 FIFA World Cup pre-qualifier 3-1 in Doha, Qatar with captain Hassan Bashir scoring the country’s first goal in a World Cup qualifier for over a decade.
The game, which started on an immediate loss for Pakistan, saw Yemen take a 1-0 lead when Muzammil Hussain fouled Ayman Al-Hagri inside the box. And although the keeper saved the resulting penalty, it was diverted into the goal from the follow-up.
Yemen picked up their tempo and launched a cascade of attacks, but Pakistan’s shaky defence held up reasonably well despite the onslaught. In attack, the Pak Shaheens were mostly restricted to shots from outside the box, with Hassan and Kaleemullah both going close with their efforts.
However, it was Svebolle’s Mohammad Ali who had the best chance to equalize and although he managed to direct a powerful shot goalwards after good work from Hassan on the flank, the strike went straight at the Yemeni goalkeeper.
On the other end, it was Al-Hagri who was tormenting Pakistan with ease and defender Mohammad Bilal picked up a yellow card for an elbow to his face on 21 minutes. Coach Shamlan, who started Mohammad Ahmed in midfield, then had another conundrum as the Isa Town player picked up a slight knock and had to subbed to prevent further damage.
His absence in midfield spurred on Yemen, who held the ball for long periods, but failed to make most of their possession count. And at half-time, the hosts led with a narrow 1-0 margin.
Pakistan started the remaining 45 minutes brightly with Hassan going for an audacious free-kick attempt on 46 minutes and Kaleem drifting past three defenders, only to fire one at the keeper.
Then on 51 minutes, coach Shamlan made a surprise decision to change Mohammad Ali, who had looked relatively solid until then for Mohammad Adil, but it was Yemen who changed the score-line once again, this time through a towering header from a corner on 53 minutes.
Muzammil, who hadn’t had much to do directly, then immediately felt the pressure with Yemen ramping up their speed and having a decent crack from inside the box, but the WAPDA glove man denied the goal-bound shot with a good, diving save.
Despite Yemen’s pressing, it was Pakistan who stepped up, with Riaz being fouled in the box and the referee signaling for the game’s second penalty. Captain Hassan stepped up and curled in into the top corner for a world class finish, as the Shaheens looked to make a comeback.
However, it was the Yemenites once again that made the difference, this time midfielder Ali Al-Sasi curling one into the top corner from a free-kick to extend his side’s lead to 3-1 and making Pakistan’s 2nd leg in Lahore a very difficult tie to negotiate.
Those conceded goals were kind of avoidable though
I watched long stretches of the first half and the match highlights. The team played well at times. There were some nice passing moves and attempts to keep possession. However, there was a good amount of long ball out of the back too, as always.
Shamlan messed up even before the match started by deciding to keep Adil on the bench, use Mosin Ali at LB, and use Muzammil as keeper. There was no need to play Muhammad Ahmed at defensive mid, when Naveed Ahmed would have done a fine job at CDM and M Ahmed could have handled the LB position beautifully as always. Mohsin Ali does contribute something to the offence, but not nearly enough to make up for his very weak defending. Most of Yemen’s easy attacks seemed to come from his side of the pitch.
After so many blunders by Muzammil over the past couple weeks, I don’t understand how Shamlan could justify giving him the starting job. Saqib would have been better, but I would have strongly preferred Ahsanullah to start. He may be younger, but not really by much, and he is much more skilled than either of the other two, in my opinion. Muzammil and Saqib have never really impressed me, whereas Ahsanullah has caught my eye since his time in the national youth teams. Mohammed Omer of NBP and Bilal Rafiq of PIA are also much better keepers and should have been in the team instead. Yusuf Butt is not necessary. He is good, and I wouldn’t mind having him in the team, but other keepers can do the job just as well. Its merely a matter of using them, instead of always going with the weakest options just because of seniority or some other abstract idea.
Adil should have been given the start at RM with Mansoor alongside him at RCM. I think that the two of them would have combined very well down that right flank. M Ali was very impressive and should have started at CAM with Riaz or Kaleem at LM.
Saddam was impressive at times, but his first touches were horrible. He really needs to work on his ball control. I always used to see good ball control from him, so this was very surprising.
I really like Shamlan’s emphasis on attacking play. Even in an away match like this, it was a good approach. If he had only gotten his starting lineup correct, I feel that we would have seen a much different result today. Attacking takes pressure off the defence, specially if the team can keep possession. Over the past several years, I have always seen Pakistan sitting back and trying to soak up the pressure and try to counterattack with long balls. That approach always led to failure. Now the team makes some attempts at keeping possession and has a very attacking attitude and that helps to relieve the pressure on the keeper and defence. Imagine how many goals Muzammil would have conceded if Yemen had 75% possession. And attacking football also is more pleasing to watch.
Yemen played a beautiful passing game. I don’t know why our players cannot play like that. It always seems as though our players are running around like headless chickens instead of playing calm, composed football. Do they not watch professional football and see how the game is played at its finest?
Zesh … as expected. I don’t know if it was truly a matter of his club refusing to release him, or just an easy way for Zesh to skip national team duty (like the injury excuse against Afghanistan?), but his attitude towards NT duty has been and still is (check twitter) unenthusiastic. I also don’t feel that his presence would have helped defensively, but he would have helped in keeping possession and building the attacks. Anyways, I hope he doesn’t have any more NT games.
Same approach for the home leg, but better lineup, please.
Since it is the a very difficult task uphill whatever the result is by seeing todays match(there very some fine touches and move) i am sure that by time of qualifiers of 2022 we will have a good team and will stun some good sides.likes of otis(sheff),sami(germany),adnan muhammed(FCN),waqas(burnley),naveed ahmed(schalke 04),dardoi trio, and some good locals like riaz,ahsanullah,mohsin,bilal,mansoor,saad ullah will be more mature and better(hopefully all of them will be play in better leagues by them).Inshallah we would perform better in future
in 2010 qualifiers yemen defeated maldieves 3-0 in 1st leg but lost 2-0 in 2nd….Still hope is there as we have 1 away goal as well.We can take them in Lahore
Dont want to sound negative but that 3-0 was in Yemen not outside of their country as is in this case !
Yup you are right but 2nd leg was in Maldives.Home support means alot.We can turn the table
Even Pakistan winning 2-0 will send us through on away goals.