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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