Difficult days ahead for Nepal

SEP 12 -

Nepal’s hopes of the qualifying it to the next round of the AFC U-16 Championship hangs by a thread after they were beaten 2-0 by Syria on the first day of the Group D qualifiers at the Dashrath Stadium on Monday.

At the Halchowk Stadium, Saudi Arabia hammered Oman 3-0 to climb atop the group standings with three points ahead of Syria, who trail them on goal difference.

Faced with a daunting task of competing against a physically superior opponent who were double the size of most of the Nepali squad members, the home team’s challenge was made more difficult when they conceded an early goal in third minute. Ahmad Ashqar scored from a corner, making full use of the lack of coordination between the Nepali players. The next goal for the visitors took nearly 80 minutes to come but when it did, it spelt the end of home team’s challenge and also gave an ominous sign of the worst days to come for the home team that is playing against powerhouse Saudi Arabia, who are feared even by Syria.

Substitute Abdul Razak scored from against the run of play in the 82nd minute. Nepal’s poor defending was again to blame for.

Nepal’s coach Sunil Shrestha did not easily rule out his team’s chances. He agreed that the task had been made difficult but still saw a silver lining. “We lost an important match today. Though we have to face stronger teams like Saudi Arabia and Oman in next matches, anything can happen in football. We still have chances,” he said. “The early goal we conceded was the reason behind our loss. We did get a host of chances in the match but our poor finishing cost us dear.’

Contrary to what Shresth said, Nepal’s performance, in fact, took a turn for good after they conceded the early goal. Skipper Heman Gurung and Biswas Shrestha put up a sterling up front but could not make the pressure pay. Gurung, like always, was lethal with his freekicks, and in the 47th minute he almost found the back of the net from almost the centre line. His first real attempt was in 29th minute but curled his shot a little more than what was needed.

Syria’s coach Muhannad Al Fakker said he feared the Nepali team the most before the match because Nepal was a mystery team for him. “I did want to take on Nepal on the first day because I did not know much about the team,” he said. “Nepal were strong and very quick side but we scored. In the second half we played well.”

Syria’s next encounter is against Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The Saudi have a better record against the Syrians, winning twice in the U-14 category recently. Nepal, meanwhile take on Oman on the same day.

Saudi Arabia, like expected, emerged as the favourites from the group, hammering Oman 3-0.

They scored their first in the 34th minute through Sumayhan Daidan and got their second in the hour’s mark. Abdul Kareem was the scorer. Hasan Farid sealed the win three

minutes later.

sorce - e kantipur