Soccer South Asian Cup 2011 / Afghanistan

The Afghan team cheers after reaching the final against Nepal

This article covers the Afghan national soccer team at the 2011 South Asian Cup . Afghanistan participated for the fifth time. For the first time, Afghanistan was able to qualify for a final of a soccer competition.

preparation

The national team entered the tournament without having played a preparatory game beforehand. Since there is no qualifying round at the South Asian Cup, Afghanistan, like all other member states, was automatically qualified. The last international matches before the South Asian Cup were played by the national team as part of the 2014 World Cup qualification against Palestine on June 29 and July 3, 2011, respectively. Despite the 1-1 draw in the second leg, Afghanistan failed due to the 2-0 defeat in the first leg first qualifying round.

Squad

The table lists all players who were in the squad for the 2011 South Asian Cup from December 2 to December 11, 2011. No permanent captain was determined during the tournament: while Zohib Islam Amiri was still in the captain's armband in the first game against India, Djelaludin Sharityar (against Sri Lanka), Belal Arezou (Bhutan), Mohammad Yusef Mashriqi (Nepal in the semifinals ) were in the semi-finals ) and Hamidullah Yousufzai (India in the final), who led the Afghan team onto the field. In the final, Yousufzai received the red card and Amiri took over the captaincy. That is why he is included in the squad as captain:

No.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	Games	Gates	Previous participations
goal
01	Hamidullah Yousufzai	Feruzi FC	0Oct 9, 1981	6th	0	5	0	2005, 2009
22nd	Bashir Darwan	Saramyasht FC	Sep 11 1989	0	0	1	0
Defense
03	Zohib Islam Amiri	Mumbai FC	0May 2, 1987	19th	0	5	1	2005, 2008, 2009
16	Djelaludin Sharityar	Hidd SSC	15th Mar 1983	13	0	5	1
02	Muqadar Qazizadah	Feruzi FC	Sep 11 1988	8th	0	5	0	2009
04th	Faisal Sakhizada	Ordu Kabul FC	Oct 22, 1990	8th	0	5	0	2009
05	Zakria Rezai	Ordu Kabul FC	July 29, 1989	7th	0	0	0	2009
13	Ghulam Hazrat Niazi	Ordu Kabul FC	Nov 30, 1991	2	0	2	0
21st	Mujtaba Faiz	Feruzi FC	Nov 21, 1989	1	0	1	0
midfield
07th	Israfeel Kohistani	Feruzi FC	05th June 1987	18th	1	5	0	2005, 2009
06th	Sayed Maqsood Hashimi	Ordu Kabul FC	0June 2, 1989	16	0	3	0	2009
17th	Ata Yamrali	TSV Sasel	05th July 1982	7th	1	4th	2
08th	Mohammad Yusef Mashriqi	Brishna FC	0July 7, 1987	7th	0	5	1
20th	Waheed Nadeem	Feruzi FC	0June 2, 1986	6th	1	3	0	2009
19th	Masih Barekzai	Ordu Kabul FC	0Dec 6, 1990	5	0	2	0
14th	Yousuf Sameh	Bay Area Ambassadors	Apr 11, 1985	1	0	1	0
18th	Ahmad Hatifie	without a club	13 Mar 1986	0	0	3	0
	Mustafa Mohammad Hashimi	unknown	0Feb. 4, 1988	0	0	0	0
attack
11	Hashmatullah Barekzai	Feruzi FC	04th June 1987	15th	2	3	0	2009
09	Belal Arezou	Asker FH	Dec. 28, 1988	2	1	5	6th
10	Sandjar Ahmadi	SC Vier- und Marschlande	Feb 10, 1992	0	0	5	2
Trainer
	Mohammad Yousef Kargar	Head coach	May 11, 1963	15th
	Elyas Manochehr	Assistant coach		15th

1. ↑ ^{a b} Only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the South Asian Cup (as of July 3, 2011) are given.
2. ↑ This means participation in previous South Asian Championships .

Afghan team games

Group stage

Djelaludin Sharityar versus Sunil Chhetri in the group game against India

At the group draw on November 2, 2011 in New Delhi , Afghanistan was drawn to India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Afghanistan faced India at the last South Asian Cup; but since a U-23 selection took place for India, the 0-1 defeat against the eventual South Asian champions was not officially counted. The overall balance also spoke clearly against Afghanistan: they lost five times in six games, including the South Asian Cup in 2003 , and only had one draw. Afghanistan has already played in three South Asian championships against Sri Lanka. That made them Afghanistan's most common opponent. Afghanistan has a balanced record in the three games: a win, a draw and a defeat were recorded. Afghanistan also won the last game when they won the AFC Challenge Cup qualification 1-0 on April 9, 2011 . Afghanistan played against Bhutan once at the South Asian Cup in 2008 when they lost 3-1. The overall balance nevertheless spoke for the Afghans: they could win twice in three games.

Since Afghanistan had a bad record at the previous South Asian Cups with only one win in twelve games and the respective elimination in the group stage, and also had the worst position in the FIFA world rankings after Bhutan before the tournament began , Afghanistan was treated as an underdog. The 1-1 draw in the first game against India was therefore seen as a respectable success. The 3-1 win against Sri Lanka, against which Afghanistan turned a 0-1 deficit, including two goals from Sandjar Ahmadi , made the national team the favorite to advance to the semi-finals. Afghanistan lived up to this role, in the last game they won 8-1 against Bhutan and made it to the semifinals. It was the highest Afghan victory in history and the second highest in a South Asian Championship. It was also the second highest-scoring game in tournament history to date. This game was overshadowed by the news that at least 54 people, including four cousins ​​of national player Mustafa Mohammad Hashimi, died in a suicide bombing in Kabul the day before.

team	Games	S.	U	N	T	GT	TD	Pt
Afghanistan	3	2	1	0	12	3	+9	7th
India	3	2	1	0	9	1	+8	7th
Sri Lanka	3	1	0	2	4th	6th	−2	3
Bhutan	3	0	0	3	1	16	−15	0

December 3, 2011
India	-	Afghanistan	1: 1
5th December 2011
Afghanistan	-	Sri Lanka	3: 1
December 6, 2011
Bhutan	-	Afghanistan	1: 8

Final round

Semifinals

December 9, 2011

Afghanistan

-

Nepal

1: 0 a.d.

For the first time at a South Asian Cup, the Afghan national team reached the semi-finals. In four games against Nepal there was no win, one draw and three defeats, including the 2009 South Asian Cup . Nonetheless, Afghanistan was the better team and had some good chances in 90 minutes. Nevertheless, it went into overtime, where Belal Arezou marked the winning goal with his sixth tournament goal in the 101st minute.

Zohib Islam Amiri (left) in a duel against Jeje Lalpekhlua in the final against India

final

December 11, 2011

India

-

Afghanistan

4-0

The final between Afghanistan and India, who met for the second time in the tournament, took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi . While India has already played seven of eight finals in the South Asian Championships, it was Afghanistan’s first ever finals in a football tournament. The team of Mohammad Yousef Kargar could keep long and initially had the better chances. In the 64th minute, however, India received a penalty and captain Hamidullah Yousufzai was subsequently red carded for pushing referee Sukhbir Singh . Then Afghanistan was no longer competitive to ten and in the end lost clearly 0: 4.

statistics

• When they beat Bhutan, Afghanistan scored the most in a game at the South Asian Cup with eight goals. Belal Arezou scored the most goals by a player in a game with his four goals.
• The 13 Afghan goals were split between six players (Belal Arezou (6 goals), Sandjar Ahmadi , Ata Yamrali (2 goals each), Zohib Islam Amiri , Mohammad Yusef Mashriqi and Djelaludin Sharityar (1 goal each)). The team thus took first place in the ranking of teams with the highest number of goalscorers in the tournament.
• Ata Yamrali scored the tournament's earliest goal against Bhutan. Overall, Afghanistan scored the most in the opening quarter of an hour with four goals.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maldives in group of death . Maldives Soccer. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
2. ↑ Rahul Bali: SAFF Championship Report Card - Where Do The Teams Stand After Round One In: goal.com . December 4, 2011, accessed May 24, 2016
3. ↑ Game scenes on the YouTube video platform
4. ↑ Game scenes on the YouTube video platform
5. ↑ Afghanistan 3-1 Sri Lanka: A Comeback Victory For The Lions Of Khorasan ( Memento from December 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: goal.com . December 5, 2011, accessed May 24, 2016
6. ↑ Rahul Bali: Afghan Player Loses Four Members Of His Family In The Kabul Blasts In: goal.com . December 7, 2011, accessed May 24, 2016
7. ↑ Game scenes on the YouTube video platform
8. ↑ India 4-0 Afghanistan: The Men In Blue Successfully Defend Their SAFF Championship Title ( Memento from January 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: goal.com . December 11, 2011, accessed May 24, 2016
9. ↑ Game scenes on the YouTube video platform