Pakistan U22 off to Saudi Arabia today for AFC Qualifiers

Alam Zeb Safi [The News]
Thursday, June 21, 2012

KARACHI: Pakistan under-22 football team will move from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia on Thursday (today) to feature in the AFC U22 Asian Cup Qualifiers Group B starting at two different venues in Riyadh from June 23.

“We spent some productive days in Bahrain and will leave for our next station in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,” coach Zavisa Milosavljevic told ‘The News’ from Bahrain on Wednesday.

In hostile weather conditions and on poor pitches, Pakistan held Bahrain’s under-22 team to a goalless draw a few days ago. In another match, they beat Al Hala Football Club, their national league’s fifth placed side, 3-1 on Tuesday night. Sher Mohammad, Rashid Ali and Mohammad bin Younis scored goals for the visitors.

Pakistan have been placed in Group B in the qualifiers with the hosts Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Sri Lanka and Syria. Zavisa is confident that his team has turned out to be a serious unit ahead of the vital event. “No doubt, our team has turned out to be a serious unit as it has now a recognised playing style and a few foreign tours have helped us a lot,” said the Serbian.

However, he was not quite sure what the output of his charges in Saudi Arabia would be. “I cannot say that we are absolutely ready as other teams may have also prepared well for the task but the way our boys have made improvement shows that they are capable to produce productive results in the qualifiers,” the 52-year-old Zavisa said.

Pakistani boys usually have problems in the finishing, but the coach is confident that this area has been improved. “We have started scoring goals and it shows that our finishing is not weak,” Zavisa said.

The assignment in Saudi Arabia will be a real test for Zavisa who was hired last November for a term of two years. The Asian Cup will be the second major test for the foreign coach who also supervised Pakistan national senior teams days after taking charge as a coach at the SAFF Championship in New Delhi last year where the team failed to move into the semifinals after it played draw games against Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives.

Pakistan will be pitted against Saudi Arabia on June 23 in their opener at the King Fahd International Stadium in the KSA capital Riyadh.

Then they will meet Sri Lanka at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium on June 25, followed by their games against Kyrgyzstan on June 28 at King Fahd International Stadium, against Syria on June 30 at the same venue and against Palestine on July 3 at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium.

Two teams from the group will qualify for the 2013 Asian Cup.

Pakistani boys had to bear extremely hot weather in Bahrain and will face similar conditions in Saudi Arabia, which it is too hot these days.

The Pakistani lot has been in constant practice for the last two months as they visited Thailand on a training tour and then participated in an international event in Palestine before embarking on a ten-day tour of Bahrain.

Striker Kaleemullah will lead Pakistan in the qualifiers, assisted by his deputy Faisal Iqbal.

Zavisa will be assisted by Nasir Ismail as assistant coach while Aslam Khan will act as the goalkeeping coach.

Squad: Kaleem Ullah (captain), Faisal Iqbal (vice-captain), Saddam Hussain, Saqib Hanif, Muzammil Hussain, Tanveer Mumtaz, Naveed Ahmed, Ahsan Ullah, Manzoor Ahmed, Mohsin Ali, Noor Muhammad, Aamir Siddiqui, Rashid Ali, Mehmood Khan, Muhammad Adil, Sher Muhammad, Bilawal-ur-Rehman, Junaid Qadir, Abdul Rehman, Imran Ali Khan, Muhammad, Zakir Lashari, Riaz Ahmed.

 

Group B

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Kyrgyzstan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 Pakistan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 Palestine 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 Saudi Arabia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 Sri Lanka 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 Syria 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
23 June 2012
18:00
Pakistan  v  Saudi Arabia King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
23 June 2012
20:45
Palestine  v  Sri Lanka King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
23 June 2012
20:45
Syria  v  Kyrgyzstan Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh

25 June 2012
18:00
Saudi Arabia  v  Kyrgyzstan King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
25 June 2012
20:45
Syria  v  Palestine King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
25 June 2012
20:45
Pakistan  v  Sri Lanka Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh

28 June 2012
18:00
Saudi Arabia  v  Palestine King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
28 June 2012
20:45
Kyrgyzstan  v  Pakistan King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
28 June 2012
20:45
Sri Lanka  v  Syria Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh

30 June 2012
18:00
Sri Lanka  v  Saudi Arabia King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
30 June 2012
20:45
Syria  v  Pakistan King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
30 June 2012
20:45
Palestine  v  Kyrgyzstan Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh

3 July 2012
18:00
Syria  v  Saudi Arabia King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
3 July 2012
20:45
Kyrgyzstan  v  Sri Lanka King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh
3 July 2012
20:45
Pakistan  v  Palestine Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh