Shahrukh Sohail, Chief Editor, Islamabad
The Pak Shaheens flopped emphatically as they had a man sent off in the first half and were spanked with four goals by the hosts in Surabaya.
Coach Shamlan, who has ignored senior and foreign-based players, for some time fielded a very youthful line-up against Indonesia’s senior side which also included naturalized Indonesian striker Cristian Gonzales, who is originally from Uruguay.
Subsequently, the Shaheens struggled and conceded an early goal on the 12th minute through Gonzales with Pakistan’s defence looking very frail.
PAF’s Mansoor Khan looked lively had a superb try from 35 yards but the shot hit the cross bar with no one there to hit the rebound. Meanwhile, goalkeeper Ehsanullah had his work cut out and kept out the Indonesians with all his might.
The hosts enjoyed most of the possession and scored their 2nd in the 16th minute as Pakistan crumbled under the pressure of the Red and White. And things went bad to worse, when Saddam Hussain was sent off for a double-footed, studs up challenge on the goalkeeper.
Following that Pakistan’s performance went to the doldrums, with Indonesia very unlucky not to have gotten more goals in the first half.
After the breather, Mansoor Khan had a great chance on the 50th minute to pull one back but despite beating the keeper, he wasn’t able to find the back of the net. Coach Shamlan made several changes in the second half, with goalkeeper Saqib Hanif and Ashfaquddin coming on.
Saqib was tested early as Indonesia converted a penalty on the 58 minutes before missing a couple of chances to finally put the icing on the cake with a late fourth goal on the 87th minute.