Friday 28 April 2017

Spring Season - Week Ten - April 28th

- The last week of the season saw Emaan defeat Sabr to take First Overall and the Number One seed for the playoffs; Yaqeen stun Ihsan for their first win of the season; Taqwa put up a season-high Nine goals against Haya to lock up third place and finally Ihsan close out the regular season with a win over Taqwa.

- Three Stars from Week Nine:
1st Star: Furqan Salam (Emaan) - 1 Goal, 2 Assists
2nd Star: Yousuf Soliman (Ihsan) - 2 Goals
3rd Star: Idrees Deen (Yaqeen) - 1 Goal, 1 Assist

- Yaqeen went into their last game of the season without a win, without a goalie and without much of a bench.  Tanseer Khawaja stepped up to strap on the pads for his team against last season's champions Ihsan.  What transpired was a shocker as Yaqeen rallied to take a 3-0 lead at halftime and hold for a 4-1 win.  Ihsan managed a goal with just over a minute left in the game to avoid being shutout.  A positive end to a tough season for Yaqeen, key players missing games hurt them a great deal as players were shuffled into unfamiliar roles to cover.

- Emaan may have taken first overall but an observer noted that can they overcome the Salman Alvi curse, Alvi a great player in his own right has never won a championship, Emaan managed to break the championship jinx for Kashif Taqiuddin a few seasons ago when Coach K lifted the cup for the first time - can they do it again for Alvi?

- Speaking of Coach K, there were rumours during Yaqeen's tremendous performance that there were rumours of Kashif Taqiuddin retiring at the end of the season.  If he does hang up his jersey he at least goes out with a win thanks to his teammates.

- Ihsan was humbled in their first game, but bounced back against Taqwa in their second game of the night with fans noting that Rameez Siddiqi gets amped up whenever Yousuf Soliman scores a goal.  It's unclear whether he's auditioning for a role as a hype man Soliman's alter ego of Drake but his passion is great for the teams chemistry

- Yaqeen's upset win also did one unexpected thing for the playoffs, putting Ihsan and Emaan in the same bracket as they could meet in the Semi-Finals.

- Veteran Naveen Mohammad managed to score in each of Taqwa's games last week, he'll be additionally pleased that the goals put him ahead of his son in the family race to see who scored more points this season.

- Yaqeen had a short bench in their game last week but that didn't stop their players from checking their phone on the bench to watch the live stream of the Leaf's playoff game.  Players from Yaqeen were seen live streaming the Leafs game on their bench, the passion that unites us all.

Congratulations to the following winners of Regular Season Awards:
Overall Points Leader: Waqar Khan (Emaan) 19 points
Overall Goals Leader: Dawood Ciombar (Sabr) and Adil Patel (Taqwa) tied with 10 Goals each
Khalid Raheem Lowest GAA Award: Yusuf Kapoor (Emaan) 1.30

Look for the nominees of the rest of the Awards to be announced next week.

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