Three Stars from Week Four:
1st Star: Dawood Ciombar (Sabr)- 3 Goals
2nd Star: Yasir Hussain (Taqwa)- 20 saves and shutout
3rd Star: Zaid Majoo (Ihsan)- 13 saves and shutout
- Week Four Three stars have an interesting story. To begin with Dawood Ciombar along with the rest of his Sabr teammates put on a show and were just relentless versus Taqwa, earning him the first star as he tallied a hat-trick. The game appeared to be over in the first half and it looked as if Taqwa weren’t going to put up too much of a resistance knowing they had to play a second game (against Yaqeen) right after. But that is not what happened! Taqwa went from a meager four shots in the first half to 16 shots in the second half. Sure the game might have been out of reach at this point, but by playing hard despite the score gave them momentum for their inspired effort against Yaqeen. Goaltender Yasir Hussain (Taqwa) went from giving up six goals to getting the shutout the very next game!
- Last week was not a good week for Yaqeen; as mentioned above they were shutout by Taqwa who were playing their second game in a row. This loss was compounded on top of the earlier 2-0 defeat at the hands of Ihsan in a rematch of the Finals from last season with Zaid Majoo collected the shutout win in a 13-save effort. For Yaqeen to suffer two defeats by the exact same 2-0 score was not what many expected, particularly as their second game was against Taqwa who had just come off a 6-1 drubbing against Sabr.
- Sabr clearly wanted to exact some retribution on Taqwa after their Week Three meeting where Sabr was dominant the entire game but only able to hold a 1-0 lead going into the final two minutes where the wheels fell off and Taqwa put up three goals to steal a 3-1 win. Sabr seemed intent on not giving Taqwa even a glimmer of hope for a comeback this time around. The game also featured the rare occurrence of not one but two penalty shots. Saleem Malik made the most of his attempt to make the score 4-0 at that time while Adil Patel missed his opportunity just a few minutes later.
- Yaqeen has a lot of soul searching to do. With only three goals, their season has been miserable. It isn’t fair to pinpoint their struggles on specific players, but that’s what happens; Star players get the glory when things are going well, but they also should be prepared to face the scrutiny otherwise. On that note, last season’s top goal-scorer Humza Chaudhry has yet to find his stride and the first overall pick, Mohammed Hamoud needs to do more. Hamoud has switched between Defense and Forward and found success in neither spot.
- Rumor has it Yaqeen GM, Arsalan Mian is considering to make significant changes to his lineup either via a trade or through bringing in a replacement player. Yaqeen has talented players but they have not been able to click yet and a change may be the best way to shake things up.
- Salman Alvi (Emaan) has been on quite a roll and most recently notching the game winner for his team last week. However, he was displaced from the top of the goal-leader board by King Dawood Ciombar (Sabr). In now his second season, last year’s top rookie, Dawood Ciombar is having a breakout campaign and evolving his game to become one of the league’s best snipers
- Last week also saw Atif Mian (Haya) vs Furqan Salam (Emaan) Round One. A game in which Mian was looking to make Salam regret his decision for leaving him off TMT (Emaan’s adopted nickname), yet it would be Salam who would find his name in the scoring summary and helping his team to the win. Round Two happens April 14th so circle that date in your calendar. Mian also had a couple of good battles with former teammate Sadiq Rehman with the physical play going both ways between the two. Rehman will get the win here in the head-to-head so Mian will have another motivation the next time he faces Emaan.
- Ihsan managed to get their first win of the season last week, an event that got Yousuf Soliman back in from of a microphone as “Drake” promised to drop some more wins, or “Views” as he called them, in upcoming weeks.
- Emaan went into their game with Haya missing top winger Arif Bijabhai and promoted Jibran Salam to their top line with Waqar Khan and Furqan Salam. While observers tried to anoint the trio with a nickname other than “The Salam’s”, offering such as “The Three Salam-os” (a play on the Three Amigos) or “S Club” none really worked out. The larger issue for Emaan was the trio not being able to generate consistent offense than the one goal Furqan Salam potted which was banking in off a Haya defender.
- Back to Ihsan, it should be noted that their first win coincided with the return of Osama Soliman who finished his debut with a goal and an assist. Hany Soliman seemed more comfortable in his game as well and contributed two assists. One wonders what the Ihsan lineup will do when Walied Soliman finally makes his debut.
- Yaqeen has a lot of soul searching to do. With only three goals, their season has been miserable. It isn’t fair to pinpoint their struggles on specific players, but that’s what happens; Star players get the glory when things are going well, but they also should be prepared to face the scrutiny otherwise. On that note, last season’s top goal-scorer Humza Chaudhry has yet to find his stride and the first overall pick, Mohammed Hamoud needs to do more. Hamoud has switched between Defense and Forward and found success in neither spot.
- Rumor has it Yaqeen GM, Arsalan Mian is considering to make significant changes to his lineup either via a trade or through bringing in a replacement player. Yaqeen has talented players but they have not been able to click yet and a change may be the best way to shake things up.
- Salman Alvi (Emaan) has been on quite a roll and most recently notching the game winner for his team last week. However, he was displaced from the top of the goal-leader board by King Dawood Ciombar (Sabr). In now his second season, last year’s top rookie, Dawood Ciombar is having a breakout campaign and evolving his game to become one of the league’s best snipers
- Last week also saw Atif Mian (Haya) vs Furqan Salam (Emaan) Round One. A game in which Mian was looking to make Salam regret his decision for leaving him off TMT (Emaan’s adopted nickname), yet it would be Salam who would find his name in the scoring summary and helping his team to the win. Round Two happens April 14th so circle that date in your calendar. Mian also had a couple of good battles with former teammate Sadiq Rehman with the physical play going both ways between the two. Rehman will get the win here in the head-to-head so Mian will have another motivation the next time he faces Emaan.
- Ihsan managed to get their first win of the season last week, an event that got Yousuf Soliman back in from of a microphone as “Drake” promised to drop some more wins, or “Views” as he called them, in upcoming weeks.
- Emaan went into their game with Haya missing top winger Arif Bijabhai and promoted Jibran Salam to their top line with Waqar Khan and Furqan Salam. While observers tried to anoint the trio with a nickname other than “The Salam’s”, offering such as “The Three Salam-os” (a play on the Three Amigos) or “S Club” none really worked out. The larger issue for Emaan was the trio not being able to generate consistent offense than the one goal Furqan Salam potted which was banking in off a Haya defender.
- Back to Ihsan, it should be noted that their first win coincided with the return of Osama Soliman who finished his debut with a goal and an assist. Hany Soliman seemed more comfortable in his game as well and contributed two assists. One wonders what the Ihsan lineup will do when Walied Soliman finally makes his debut.
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