- With the trade deadline now passed and rosters frozen, many players on Ikhlas are breathing a bit easier knowing that GM Ahmad Ibrahim won’t be able to make any more deals. He was by far the most active GM this season in working the phone lines.
- Another week and the same problems for Emaan and Sabr contributed to their losses. For Emaan another short bench while for Sabr it was being forced to put in a back-up goalie - in this case Umer Buksh who took one for the team and filled in admirably.
- Shukr got a bit of a scare falling behind to Emaan 3-1 last week but stuck with the game plan and managed to grind out a 3-3 tie to keep them alone in first place and undefeated for the season.
- Shukr was without Sulayman Azmat and Salman Alvi but have done a great job in getting production from all players, the opening goal was put in by Mohamed Sattaur who has scored in back to back games. As for Alvi, the veteran has been out of the lineup with an injury to his wrist since the start of the season and as he nears a return will be a great boost for an already deep team.
- The challenges Ihsan has had with staying out of the penalty box this season (well really only Rayhan Malik) were noted last week and the team decided to try him on forward - which seemed to pay off where his hustle helped to create chances on the forecheck and perhaps more importantly he didn’t hurt the team with careless penalties.
- Back to Shukr for a moment, as great as the team has been performing it has to be a concern that they are getting nothing from Fahad Mallik as he still has yet to register a point. We’ll give him another week before his face appears on the milk carton that Furqan Salam made famous.
- Haya is hoping for some good news on the health front as goalie Rizwan Ali is currently out after a collision a couple of weeks ago. We all hope for a speedy recovery for the veteran goalie who will be counted on by Haya to backstop them for a championship run.
- Ahmad Hathout of Sabr potted a pair of goals in a losing effort last week and while his team may be in last place with only one win, Hathout has been strong this season thus far and leads the league in Points, Goals and Assists. In each category he is just ahead of “frenemy” Waqar Khan. There has been some grumbling that Hathout seems to always have great games against weak opponents and empty nets but those comments are sounding more like sour grapes. Hathout has a point in all seven games this season for 15 points in total while being the only consistent source of offense for his team.
- Umair Ashraf of Ikhlas sought to clarify something from the recent Spring Season, the issue in question was his comments during the celebrations for winning the championship. News and Rumours from that season noted the following comment, “During celebrations after the game, Umair Ashraf can clearly be heard proclaiming that with the win he is now ready for marriage (don’t believe me - click here).” Ashraf is now stating that his comment was misconstrued and his full statement as he was hugging Waqar Khan was “Waqar you are now ready to get married” the video does not seem to fully support that claim so feel free to view it and judge for yourself. That said he is single so if you know someone…
- Despite being replaced, Zahid Merchant showed up to coach his former team Ikhlas. No word if he wants to be referred to as “Coach Z” going forward but he surely had a positive influence in his teams win last week as they keep in the hunt to take first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment