Sri Lanka lose 1-0 after strong fight back

World Cup 2011 Qualifying Round I:

Bernard PERERA

Sri Lanka playing in their first leg of the 2011 World Cup Asian qualifying round game lost to Qatar one goal to nil at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday. Sri Lankan soccerites played one of the best games against a strong outfit here.

The game got off to a start at 4.00 p.m. with Chathura Madhuranga Weerasinghe leading the side as captain for the first time knowing that the Qataris are going all out to attack Lankans took a defensive stance with the defence line performing a great job to halt the goal hungry Qataris.

The newcomer to the defence line D. R. T. Rohana was outstanding here with Asmeer Ali, the mid-fielder who had to work here as the regular defender had to skip the game due to an injury.

The Lankan defence was so effective that the Qataris could not penetrate to find the net during the first session of play. S. D. Tillekeratne too made few outstanding saves during this period to thwart the Qataris goal attempts.

Lankan too had few scoring opportunities in the first half but luck was not with them. First it was striker Kasun Jayasuriya who near to scoring for Sri Lanka in the 20th minute. Earlier Qatar’s Talal Al Bonshi’s header struck the cross bar which deprived them of the most wanted goal to take the lead.

Waleed Ahamed’s free kick from 25-metre too was saved by custodian Tillekeratne with stunning performance. The play makers for Qatar in this was Waleed Ahamed and Wasim Abdulmajid. Teams returned to pavilion for ‘lemons’ with a blank scorecard.

Qataris came back for the second half with determination and were off to a flying start with Waleed Ahamed trying a goal in the second minute with a superb kick. But Tillekeratne was in full alert and made a brilliant save.

Sri Lankans once again were seen doing the defensive work than going on the attack for nearly 20 minutes. Quintana Sebastian the Uruguan born playing for Qatar with a bullet like kick from about 25 metres found the net to put the visitors in front. The kick baffled all on the field.

Lankans moved very effectively towards their opponents territory on few occasions but failed to capitalise from them as Qatar’s defence line stood firm to their task. The players who really made every effort to penetrate the defence of Qatar were E. B. Channa and Kasun Jayasuriya. They were well supported by the mid fielders every now and then.

Abdul Malik Abdul Bashir, the Singaporean referee did a fine job in controlling the game though he had to work strenuously to control the game. While doing so he had to pull out the yellow on four occasions to warn two players from each team.

Sri Lanka used two substitutes in the second session of play while the Qatar used four substitutes.

Referee Bashir had assistance from G. P. Jeffrey Goh of Singapore and Mohamed Saeed of Maldives.

Sri Lankan coach Jang Jung addressing the media soon after match said that the his team put up a brilliant performance against a team that is among the top ten in Asia. The team gave 100 per cent during this game.

Answering a question Jung said that he too was expecting Qatar to win with a bigger margin but the defence line which has improved heavily thwarted this.

The weather too was not favourable on this day for the local team, still they managed to do a fine job. I expect the team to come up with a better performance playing under different conditions.

Chathura Madhuranga, the newly appointed skipper said that during the past few years Sri Lanka has improved heavily. When comprising with result gained against Iran a 1-0 loss too will prove this factor. Earlier playing against Middle-East countries we have suffered heavy defeats. Always it has been above five goals.

This time we have been able to halt their goal scoring to a great extent. Prior to this we lost to Saudi Arabia 1-0. Saudi in a one of the leading teams in the Asian region. Though we lost this game it really looks like a victory for us when considering the margin of victory.

Fossati Lurachi the Uruguan Coach of Qatar addressing the mediamen was of the opinion that his team failed to give him 100 per cent. He said that he was expecting a better result. I expect the team won every game but cannot be satisfied with it completely.

We made few mistakes, we have to put them on the right track before the next game. The team is laden with players preparing for the Beijing Olympic games. We hope to introduce new faces if the necessity arises for the next match in Qatar.