I-Slam Ball Hockey News and Rumours: February 2018

Friday 23 February 2018

Spring Season - Week Five - February 23rd

- Week Four saw Haya and Yaqeen open the night with a 1-1 draw, Ihsan ride an early lead to a 3-0 win over Ikhlas, Emaan steal a win over Ridha 4-3 and Sabr control play for an easy 1-0 win over Shukr.

Mecca Conference :

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Yaqeen	4	2	1	1	5	10	4	6
2	Shukr	4	2	1	1	5	8	5	3
3	Emaan	4	2	2	0	4	8	13	-4
4	Ikhlas	4	0	3	1	1	3	10	-7

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs

Medina Conference:

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Sabr	4	3	1	0	6	9	6	3
2	Haya	4	2	1	1	5	7	8	-1
3	Ihsan	4	2	2	0	4	9	8	1
4	Ridha	4	1	3	0	2	9	9	0

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs

- With divisional match-ups starting it was interesting to see the leaders in both division tangle with Sabr controlling the pace of play in their win over Shukr to jump to first place overall in the standings.

- Yaqeen stormed to an early lead in their game against Haya as Emmad Khawaja continues to terrorize defenders with his size and speed but Yaqeen may have settled back into a defensive style too early as Yaqeen was able to tie the game up as their GM Abdul-Wahab "The Special One" Mohammad found the right mix to tie the game up late and get a point out of the game.

- The Ikhlas struggles are hard to understand, they played well against Ihsan last week but found themselves down 3-0 in the first half and ended up losing by that score. The team is strong on paper but more than anything their offense has let them down as they have been shutout in their past two games and three goals on the season from this team is a poor showing.

- Zaid Majoo had a long night last week as he subbed in for Ridha at the 10pm game where he lost 4-3 and then stayed on for the next game to fill in for Sabr where he picked up a 1-0 game. He acknowledged being pretty sore towards the end of the second game but did his part to make sure Sabr got the win.

- The Ridha and Emaan game was a spectacle to witness, with the teams trading goals right to the end where Osama Soliman scored with 43 seconds left on a shocking individual effort to get his team the win. To end the first half, Shaukat Khan scored with just a second left in a great individual effort only to be outdone by Soliman in the final minute of the second half.

- Shukr did get a chance to tie their game up after Maaz Haq showed some individual brilliance to create a partial breakaway but was dragged down as he was shooting with a penalty shot being called. While we do not have video of Zaid Majoo making the save, this is the move Haq was not able to successfully complete.

- Ihsan has been riddled with injuries this season but some positive news may finally be on the horizon as goalie Ahmad Mobin has been rehabbing his knee injury and is anticipated to return next week which will be a big boost for the team.

- Observers have noted that Yousuf Soliman strikes a resemblance to Egyptian Soccer star Mohammad Salah, a comparison he will likely want after years of being referred to as Drake and the resulting jokes that resulted in the season he led his team to a last place finish and the #ViewsFromSixthPlace jokes that followed.

- Sulmaan Azmat is a game time decision for Ihsan tonight with a sinus issue, normally this would not be noteworthy but he wanted the league to know and was hoping that players would send him funny memes to make him feel better.

- Haya will be without veteran Naveed Mohammad who is travelling overseas in Pakistan as he shares his medical knowledge there. Haya will not be short on experienced players stepping up to fill the leadership role though.

- Sabr got a solid game from Rameez Siddiqui who made an impact during the game with Shukr - and not only with his physical play. Siddiqui created some great offensive chances and his hustle was key for his teams win. Siddiqui has been critical of iSlam media of late feeling that Sabr has not received their fair share of the headlines despite being in first place. A strange complaint considering his teammate Samad Hamidi does a weekly preview and has praised Sabr for their great play - perhaps Siddiqui is looking for a guest spot on Hamidi's next weekly preview.

- Ahmad Ibrahim has turned heads with the great condition he is in for this season, something he is rightfully proud of but perhaps his request to friends that they refer to him as the Black Panther going forward may be a step too far.

- The iSlam Social Media account seemed to have some fun at the expense of Ikhlas here, only more motivation for them going into their Week Five game against first place Sabr.

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Friday 16 February 2018

Spring Season - Week Four - February 16th

- Week Three saw Haya open the night with a 4-3 win over Ihsan, Sabr dominate for a 4-2 win over Ridha, Shukr hold on for a 3-1 win over shorthanded Emaan and Yaqeen defeat Ikhlas 2-0.

- Week Three saw the end of the first round of divisional games with some surprises in both conference:

Mecca Conference :

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Shukr	3	2	0	1	5	8	4	4
2	Yaqeen	3	2	1	0	4	9	3	6
3	Emaan	3	1	2	0	2	4	10	-6
4	Ikhlas	3	0	2	1	1	3	7	-4

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs

Medina Conference:

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Sabr	3	2	1	0	4	8	6	2
2	Haya	3	2	1	0	4	6	7	-1
3	Ridha	3	1	2	0	2	6	5	-1
4	Ihsan	3	1	2	0	2	6	8	-2

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs

- For Mecca, Shukr is at the top of the table and even more shockingly, Ikhlas is at the bottom with no wins. For Medina things are tight and Haya has defied the pundits to be in a tie for first while highly regarded Ridha is tied for last and on a two game winning streak.

- Shukr was glad to have Emad Hussain back in the lineup last week after he missed their Week Two game while hanging out with the New York Rangers as MSG.

- Haya stormed out to a quick 4-0 lead in their game against Ihsan in the first half only to have their opponents storm back in the second half with three straight goals to make the final minutes tense but the veterans of Haya closed the door for the win. Their second in a row after being destroyed in their opening game of the season. Even more improbably the team sits in a tie for first place in their division which seemed unlikely after being humiliated by Ridha to open the season.

- Ridha has struggled in their past two games, missing players has been the primary cause for their poor play - notably the absence of GM Shaukat Khan whose offense cannot be replaced.

- Ihsan got some bad news a few days before their game against Haya as they learned that Humza Chaudhry would be lost for the season with a knee injury. They were able to replace him with Ahmad Chaudhry to keep it all in the family as the veteran will be needed to bring some offense to replace his the scoring of his nephew.

- Yaqeen got back to their winning ways with a strong game against Ikhlas where they scored an early goal and then demonstrated great defensive abilities as they shut down the offense of Ikhlas and scored a goal in the final minute to seal the deal. In their two wins they have demonstrated the ability to blow a team out (6-0 win against Emaan) and play a tight game (2-0 win over Ikhlas) which demonstrates the varied strengths of this team.

- Emaan went into their game against Shukr with just two subs on the bench and missing many key players but their strategy to play a tight defensive game and try and catch Shukr in transition worked as they were down just 2-1 going into the final minutes of the game. After a great individiual effort where a faceoff deep in their own zone turned into a partial breakaway, Mohammed Hamoud drew a double minor penalty and a penalty shot on the same play. With 24 seconds left and his team down by one, Hamoud took his penalty shot (video) but was stuffed by some great goaltending from Fahad Mohammad. Shukr managed to get an empty netter in the final seconds to ice the win but a lost opportunity for Emaan to steal a win after a great effort considering how short their team was.

- Haya was thought to be the weakest team coming out of the draft and many felt this opinion validated after the week one loss to Ridha but Haya had defied the experts with two straight wins. GM Abdul Wahab Mohammad went with a different strategy to draft veterans and make the key move to trade up in the draft to select Farooq Sani which surprised many but he has been rewarded as Sani has been key for the team in their wins. Mohammad has reportedly referred to himself as the "Special One" among GMs for using his own approach which is paying dividends.

- Back to the Shukr vs Emaan game, right before the Mohammad Hamoud penalty shot, Mehmed Rizvanovic can be heard on the video guaranteeing that his goalie Fahad Mohammad would come up with the save - his goalie backed him up on that claim.

- Week Four starts the cross divisional round of games with perhaps the highlight being top ranked Sabr facing surprise Mecca Conference leader Shukr.