WAPDA continue dismal run

Seven-time champions suffer second loss in football league.

KARACHI:

Defending champions Wapda continued to struggle in the first-leg of the Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) as the team suffered their second loss in the tournament. The defending champions, hampered by the loss of five key players due to injuries, went down 1-0 to PPFL newcomers Pakistan Police.

Afghan FC held KRL to a goal-less draw, while the encounter between HBL and PAF also turned out to be a stalemate.

Wapda, the seven-time national champions, and Police failed to score in the first-half. But it was Police who opened the scoring with Asad Khan hitting the winner in the 65th minute to hand Wapda their second defeat in the tournament.

Wapda’s head coach Sharafat Ali, however, expressed satisfaction at his young team’s show in the absence of key players.

“I couldn’t ask for more from the young players who are trying to fill the shoes of our seniors,” Ali told The Express Tribune. “Our main striker Arif Mehmood isn’t playing due to injury while there has been a huge void left in the midfield as Arif Hussain is resting after an injury in the first match of the tournament.

“Similarly our forward Zeeshan and fullback Shahid are also not playing.”

Ali said the he was hoping that the injury curse would finish when the second-leg of the tournament gets underway in Karachi from July 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2011.