Week Five - November 4th

- Week Four saw Haya pick-up their first win over a winless Ikhlas, Emaan ride a strong second half for the win while Ihsan dominates Shukr to remain undefeated.

- There has been a lot of “messages” exchanged between members of Ihsan and Emaan with many references to the 2014 Spring Season Championship team (pictured below):

So we decided to do an I-Slam version of ‘Who he play for?’

-Ahmad Ibrahim: plays for Shukr and has 2 assists on the campaign
-Imdad Ali: also plays for Shukr and patrols their blue line
-Zahid Merchant: hasn’t been signed by any teams this season.  But you might be more familiar with his brother Imran Merchant who plays in net for Sabr this season and has been improving each week

- Asad Darr: decided he has nothing left to prove and is enjoying his time off

-Usamah Rao: is in unfamiliar territory now suits up for the winless Ikhlas
-Atif Mian: a late bloomer on the ball-hockey scene is also on winless Ikhlas

-Ahmad Mobin: after a two-year hiatus he is putting up impressive numbers for Emaan

-Ali Murtaza: the gifted forward has yet to register a point for Emaan this season

-Wakaas Khan: also plying his trade for Emaan this season,

-Umair Awan and brother Adeel Awan are part of the GM core for Emanate

-Farrukh Khan and Sajid Khan (no relation) are the main reason to why Ihsan has only allowed 35 shots through three games.

-Zia Ali: bringing his grit and positive energy to Ihsan.

 Thanks for playing!

- A quick point on Shukr, they have been shut out in two straight weeks, first by Yusuf Kapoor of Yaqeen and then by Zaid Majoo of Ihsan; both goalies are having stellar seasons only letting two and three goals respectively in and sporting a save percentage above .900 % (the gold standard)

- Ikhlas is on a bye week and they could use it, the past three weeks they have been out-scored by a 12-3 tally! They have difficulties in scoring goals and their team defense has been struggling which has left goalie Rahil Ahmed exposed without help; something needs to change and they have a week to regroup

- Hany Soliman of Ihsan was held off the scoresheet last week for the first time this season, that said, while the powerforward may not have helped score his hard work kept the focus on him and gave his teammates more space to work with

- While Sabr is still looking for their first win this season, along with Ikhlas, they seem to be improving as in their last two games they had the lead in both games

- After their comeback win over Sabr, there was a strange hissing noise heard from Emaan's dressing room, no word on what was going on in there at this time

- Just so we are all on the same page, there is only one timeout per game.  So get your team to the arena on time to review strategy so burning an early timeout to talk about the plan with latecomers.

- Yousuf Soliman of Ihsan has been working hard this season to erase the debacle of last season from his mind, Soliman (or "Drake" as he is referred to by friends) was the captain for Sabr last season who finished in last as they were 6^th in the table, spurring the hastag #ViewsFromSixth

-The combination of an idle Yaqeen and a red hot Waqar Khan saw a new point leader as Khan posted another multi-goal night to move to the top of the leaderboard while claiming the second star of the week.  

-Haya’s Mehmed Rizvanovic was the first star and Ihsan’s Zaid Majoo the 3rd

-After Week Four  there are three undefeated teams remaining in Yaqeen, Ihsan and Haya

-On the flipside, after Week Four there are two winless teams remaining in Ikhlas and Sabr

-Suspension Notice: Firasath Ali of Yaqeen has been suspended for one game for abuse of a score-keeper.  We value our volunteers and recognizing they gave up their free time to help out with league operations and more importantly try to make the league enjoyable for everyone. In short, verbally abusing a scorekeeper or OC member in the penalty box, on the floor, in the parking lot, on social media is not permitted.  If you have a suggestion or feedback, we recommend you to approach us in a professional manner so we can work together on whatever the issue might be.