- Week Two saw a pair of teams making their debut as Ihsan and Emaan had a chance to hit the floor with mixed results. Ihsan ended their game in a 0-0 draw with Ikhlas while Emaan defeated Sabr 4-3.
- After a rough Week One, Ikhlas rebounded with a 0-0 tie against Ihsan and can thank Yusuf Kapoor for the result as the young goalie saved everything thrown at him. Ikhlas has had some absences in their first two games that are impacting their offense but with the young talent that they have it’s only a matter of time before they start clicking.
- Shukr is reportedly dealing with multiple injury issues, the suspected injury to Sadat Malik was reported on last week but after Week One is was revealed that Humza Hussain has gone down with a knee injury adding to the teams woes. For this week it appears that Shukr will also be without Saleem Malik while another unnamed player will be playing with an injury. Coach K said that the team he built was drafted in a way where he could move pieces around and still control games so he is confident his team will still control games despite the injury issues.
- With the Humza Hussain injury news and his inability to continue this season, Shukr put Amir Multani into the waiver process to replace Hussain however Ihsan quickly put in a claim for Multani where Shukr then chose to take Imdad Ali as compensation from Ihsan. Not done, Coach K quickly flipped Ali to Sabr in exchange for Jaudat Wasty. A dizzying series of moves rarely seen
- Jaudat Wasty fits well into the Coach K system having played within it during the recent Fall Season and will be expected to play a big role for this top ranked team.
- Sabr gets Imdad Ali who provides them with a more physical and offensive touch from the veteran who will need to step in an provide an immediate punch to their back line.
- Ihsan adds a forward in Amir Multani to try and give them a boost, being shut out in their season opener may have been the push for them to take advantage of this opportunity to upgrade their forwards but came at a high price as Ihsan now has to shuffle players to replace Imdad Ali on defense.
- Last season, Fuzail Thakur, aka “Mr. Thakur” was running an Uber Service for his team as he was chauffeuring teammates around all season. This season he ensured that Humaiz Shahid and Abdul Rafey had their ride situation sorted out prior to the draft as a condition of selecting them to Ihsan.
- Emaan was rated as one of the top teams and their offense showed why as a 4-3 win in their debut was hard fought. With Khalid Mufti in net they know that they can take risks pushing the ball up and he will bail them out each time.
- Ahmad Hathout stated that he would break the record for fastest goal in a game, so far he’s 0/1 but we’ll keep track of his journey and keep fans updated. No doubt he has the speed and skill to do it so best of luck to him. After his first game where he was shutout he expressed disappointment in his performance and blamed it on having eaten some whole wheat bread prior to the game.
- Ali Murtaza and Nadeem Qureshi have been deployed as defensemen the past few seasons much to their dismay as they prefer to play their favoured position of forward. That said each have received assurances from Coach K that he will fulfill their dreams of playing up. This Make-a-Wish foundation type of request is a risk so only time will tell if it was the right move for Coach K to make.
- Some have questioned the decline in play of Hany Soliman, once viewed as a great power forward he has seen a drop off of late, one wild theory is that he no longer wears his picnic shorts when he plays and has had teammates scouring eBay looking to find a replacement hoping it will bring back his scoring touch.
- Observers were amazed that Haya managed to escape their opening game without a penalty considering that they have Rayhan Malik and Farrukh Khan who finished top two in penalties last season. Coach K was unable to tame Malik so it remains to be seen if Haya GM Zuhair Fancy has any better luck. That said it may be the presence of Shoaib Bhatti, a long time friend of Malik that finally reigns him in.
- Ikhlas has struggled in their first two games with just one goal to show for their efforts but are looking forward to the bye week to allow their head coach Ijaz Chaudhry to recover after a bout with the flu as well as Junaid Mohammad to return from a work assignment.
- When Coach K was asked why he selected Amir Multani as his replacement player, he said that despite the reports of Multani being out of shape and in poor form, he was confident that he could rebuild him similar to how he has done for other players the past few seasons. With Multani now going to Ihsan instead it will be interesting to see if they can get him to bounce back from his last season in the league, a disastrous campaign where he ended with just one assist all season.
- Ikhlas got a good boost from AK who was playing his first game of organized ball hockey but he quickly adapted and impressed enough to be thrown into key situations down the stretch of their game against Ihsan.
- Back to the Soliman brothers, a pundit recently questioned why all four never play in the same game with one brother always missing. Sabr GM Salman Alvi has been trying to convince them that there is no “3 Brother Rule” which requires one of the four to sit out each week. No confirmation on where this false rule may have come from some suspect the cerebral assassin Coach K.
Player of the Game videos have been posted:
Ikhlas vs Ihsan - Yusuf Kapoor with the shutout
Emaan vs Sabr - Gehad Alhundi (he was not available to the media post-game)
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