By Our Sports Correspondent
LAHORE, Feb 7: One goal each by Mubasher Ahmed and Farooq helped Pakistan stun Singapore 2-1 on Wednesday in the away home match of the 29th Olympics preliminary round qualifiers.
According to a message received here, Singapore had recalled key player Balestier Khalsa Sahairi bin Ramri for the tie. They also had services of Ismail Yunos, Isa Halim, Khairul Amri and Fazrul Nawaz, all part of the successful Singapore team that emerged as champions in the recently concluded Asean football championship.
The second match of the leg will be held at the Punjab Stadium here on Feb 14.
The winner of the two-match leg will advance to the qualification round where they will face Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) president announced a cash prize of Rs500,000 for the team. http://dawn.com/2007/02/08/spt16.htm
Though competition head! But you remeber this is the same Pakistan side which gave a tough time to Japan - the asian giants - at the Doha asiad in Decemeber.
I hope someone notices this...
and start patronizing football in the country, along with Cricket.
The players need to be recognized on a national level and their basic needs should be taken care of. The game requires full time comittment and considering the fact that the players come from a generally poor background, as opposed to cricket, it would be tough for them to give full attention to the sport.
I would suggest that the organizations such as PIA, WAPDA, Railways and the banks etc. , should offer employment to these future stars of the National Football Team and invest money in their welfare, apart from sponsoring their training and coaching needs.
it is a good sign though, we need consistent improvement. Pakistan can do a lot better than it has, its due to lack of focus and support for this sport that has us at the bottom end. a little organization and transparency will go a long way.