KARACHI: Karachi Port Trust (KPT) pulled off their second win of the season when they defeated truncated Chaman’s Afghan FC 2-0 in their match of the 9th Pakistan Premier Football League here at the KPT Stadium on Sunday.
It was an open game with both sides playing aggressively but KPT had an upper hand as they created more chances though most of the time they failed to capitalise on them. Following a flurry of rallies Junaid Qadir, who recently represented Pakistan in the Under-22 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Saudi Arabia, put KPT ahead in the 36th minute.
Six minutes later, they doubled their lead when their most experienced striker Zahid Ahmad landed a fine field goal. Later on a tough tussle was witnessed with Afghan FC wasting away a couple of possible chances. In the last ten minutes, KPT played with great pace but missed at least four opportunities that came their way.
KPT Sports Manager Shah Naeem Zafar said that his team should have scored more goals.
“I think our players should have scored more goals as Afghan FC are not the kind of team that played last year as most of their senior players are missing from that side and mostly youngsters have been inserted,” Shah told ‘The News’.
“But still we won by two goals and that counts a lot. But our team will have to raise its game if it wants to finish at a respectable place in the season,” added Shah.
Sources said that Afghan FC has been plagued by internal politics and that is why most of the senior players have been dropped from the side that performed exceptionally well last season.
The victory took KPT to seven points from seven matches while the loss left Afghan FC struggling at four points from five games.
Overall, KESC are leading with 17 points from seven matches, followed by KRL (14 points, 6 matches), NBP (14, 8), Navy (12,9), Muslim FC (12,7), WAPDA (10,4), PIA (8,6), Army (7,5), KPT (7,7), Baloch FC (5,6), PAF (4,5), Afghan FC (4,5), HBL (3,7), PMC Athlitico (2,3), ZTBL (2,4) and Wohaib Club (1,3).
Today’s fixtures: HBL v Baloch FC (Peoples Sports Complex, Karachi), Navy v Muslim FC (KPT Stadium, Karachi), Wohaib Club v ZTBL (UMT Ground, Lahore).
9th Pakistan Premier Football League-2012(9th PPFL-2012)
Match Results (Sunday, September 23, 2012)
Match # 47
KPT beat Afghan FC Chaman 2:0 @ 1600 PST @ KPT Football Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan
Scorer KPT: Junaid Qadir (FW) 1 Goal @ 36 Mnt and Zahid Ahmed (FW) 1 Goal @ 42 Mnt.
Yellow Card Afghan FC Chaman: Khan Junior (FW) @ 58 Mnt and Samad Khan (MF) @ 90 Mnt.
Best Player: Sajid Hussain (Goalkeeper) of KPT
Best Scorer:
Match Commissioner: Ali Nawaz Baloch Cell # 0300-2146038
Tomorrow 9th PPFL-2012 Fixture :(Monday, September 24, 2012)
Match # 48 HBL Vs Baloch FC @ 1600 PST @ Peoples Football Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan
Match # 49 Navy Vs Muslim FC @ 1600 PST @ KPT Football Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan
Match # 50 Wohaib FC Vs ZTBL @ 1600 PST @ Railway Football Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan