Soccer South Asian Cup 2013 / Afghanistan

Hamidullah Karimi after the final with the trophy on September 11, 2013

This article covers the Afghan national soccer team at the 2013 South Asian Cup . Afghanistan took part in a South Asian Championship for the sixth time. In the final on September 11, 2013, Afghanistan met India for the second time in a row in a South Asian Cup final , won 2-0 and became South Asian champions for the first time.

preparation

There will be no qualifying round for the South Asian Championship. A friendly game was planned to prepare for the South Asian Cup. This game against Pakistan took place on September 20, 2013 under tight security in the Afghan capital Kabul and was thus the first home game in Afghanistan since November 23, 2003, when they lost 2-0 to Turkmenistan . In the end you could win 3-0 in front of 6000 spectators in the sold-out AFF Stadium .

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
Aug 20, 2013	AFF Stadium , Kabul	Pakistan	3: 0 (1: 0)	Ahmadi (20th), Hatifie (53rd), Mohammadi (72nd)

Squad

The table lists all players who were in the squad for the 2013 South Asian Cup from August 31 to September 11, 2013. An expanded squad of 22 players was named by manager Mohammad Yousef Kargar on August 15th. This was reduced to 20 players after the preparatory game against Pakistan. Zainuddin Sharifi ( Shaheen Asmayee ), Faisal Sakhizada ( Dandenong Thunder ) and Ata Yamrali ( VfL 93 Hamburg ) were removed from the provisional squad , with Sidiq Walizada (NBSVV) being nominated instead . Initially, Sandjar Ahmadi had canceled his participation for professional reasons, but he revised shortly before the first game against Bhutan and traveled to the national team.

No.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	Games	Gates	Previous participations
goal
22nd	Hamidullah Yousufzai	Shaheen Asmayee	0Oct 9, 1981	13	0	1	0	2005, 2009, 2011
01	Mansur Faqiryar	VfB Oldenburg	0Jan. 3, 1986	9	0	4th	0
Defense
03	Zohib Islam Amiri	Mumbai FC	0May 2, 1987	30th	1	5	2	2005, 2008, 2009, 2011
05	Ali Ahmad Yarzada	Tofan Harirod	Oct 15, 1985	17th	0	3	0	2005, 2009
02	Muqadar Qazizadah	Shaheen Asmayee	Sep 11 1988	17th	0	0	0	2009, 2011
25th	Mustafa Hadid	Altona 93	Aug 25, 1988	8th	1	5	0	2008, 2009
27	Mujtaba Faiz	Shaheen Asmayee	Nov 21, 1989	3	0	3	0
14th	Farzad Ataee	Tofan Harirod	21 Mar 1991	1	0	5	0
midfield
09	Mohammad Yusef Mashriqi	Bhawanipore FC	0July 7, 1987	16	1	5	0	2011
30th	Waheed Nadeem	Tofan Harirod	0June 2, 1989	11	1	2	0	2009, 2011
18th	Ahmad Hatifie	Bay Area Ambassadors	13 Mar 1986	7th	1	4th	0	2011
07th	Mustafa Azadzoy	TB Uphusen	July 24, 1992	4th	0	5	2
17th	Marouf Mohammadi	Tofan Harirod	02nd July 1991	2	1	4th	0
06th	Rafi Barekzai	Tofan Harirod	0June 6, 1990	2	0	5	1
attack
12	Hashmatullah Barekzai	Shaheen Asmayee	04th June 1987	20th	3	5	2	2009, 2011
10	Belal Arezou	Churchill Brothers SC	Dec. 28, 1988	11	9	4th	0	2011
09	Sandjar Ahmadi	SC Vier- und Marschlande	Feb 10, 1992	9	4th	5	2	2011
19th	Sidiq Walizada	NBSVV	Dec 27, 1991	8th	3	2	0
24	Amruddin Sharifi	Shaheen Asmayee	02nd July 1992	3	0	2	0
13	Hamidullah Karimi	Tofan Harirod	0Feb 6, 1992	1	1	1	0
Trainer
	Mohammad Yousef Kargar	Head coach	May 11, 1963	25th
	Elyas Manochehr	Assistant coach		25th

1. ↑ ^{a b} Only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the South Asian Cup are given (as of August 20, 2013).
2. ↑ This means participation in previous South Asian Championships .

Of the eight players who were used in all five games, only captain Zohib Islam Amiri, Mustafa Azadzoy and Mustafa Hadid were each in use for the entire season.

Finals

Group stage

team	Games	S.	U	N	T	GT	TD	Pt
Maldives	3	2	1	0	18th	02	+16	7th
Afghanistan	3	2	1	0	06th	01	+5	7th
Sri Lanka	3	1	0	2	06th	15th	−9	3
Bhutan	3	0	0	3	04th	16	−12	0

At the group draw on July 30, 2013 in Kathmandu , Afghanistan was set as the group head and the Maldives , Sri Lanka and Bhutan were drawn. Not least because they occupied the highest position of all participating nations in the FIFA world rankings before the tournament , the Afghan national team was considered one of the favorites to win the South Asian Cup .

Mon., September 2, 2013
Afghanistan	-	Bhutan	3-0
Wed., September 4, 2013
Sri Lanka	-	Afghanistan	1: 3
Friday, September 6, 2013
Afghanistan	-	Maldives	0-0

Afghanistan met the Maldives during the South Asian Championships in 2005 and 2009 . Both games were lost, and the national team conceded the second-highest defeat in their history or the highest defeat in this competition in the 9-1 defeat in 2005. Afghanistan has already played in four tournaments against Sri Lanka; thus they were Afghanistan's most frequent opponent alongside India. In four games there were two wins for Afghanistan, one draw and one defeat. Afghanistan also won the last game when they won the AFC Challenge Cup qualification 1-0 on March 2, 2013 . Bhutan was opponent of the Afghans at the South Asian Championships in 2008 and 2011 ; With the 8: 1 victory on December 7, 2011, Afghanistan achieved the highest victory in national team history. The overall balance also spoke for Afghanistan: in four games there were three wins and one defeat with a goal difference of 14: 4.

Despite some difficulties and a missed penalty from Bhutan, Afghanistan was ultimately able to prevail 3-0 in the first game. The second group game against Sri Lanka turned Afghanistan into a 3-1 win after falling behind at halftime with two dream goals from Zohib Islam Amiri and Rafi Barekzai . With that Afghanistan was already qualified for the final round, in the final third group match against the Maldives it was all about group victory. As neither team wanted to risk too much, the game ended goalless draw. Due to the better goal difference, the Maldives were group winners and met India, while Afghanistan met host country Nepal in the semi-finals.

Final round

Semifinals

Sun, September 8, 2013

Nepal

-

Afghanistan

0: 1 (0: 1)

Before the game, Afghanistan faced Nepal four times, including once at the 2009 South Asian Cup . There was one draw and three defeats in the four games. Thanks to an early goal by Sandjar Ahmadi and a good-humored Mansur Faqiryar , who among other things saved two penalties from Rohit Chand , Afghanistan qualified for the final of a South Asian Cup for the second time in a row.

final

Wed., September 11, 2013

Afghanistan

-

India

2: 0 (1: 0)

With India reaching the finals at the same time, the two teams met for the second time in a row in the finals of the South Asian Cup. Up until then, Afghanistan could never win eight games, with only two draws and six defeats for the national team. With the two goals by Mustafa Azadzoy and Sandjar Ahmadi, Afghanistan won 2-0 and secured the first international title in their history.

Awards

• After the final victory, Afghanistan was awarded the winner's prize of $ 50,000.
• Mansur Faqiryar was voted Man of the Match in both the semi-finals and the final . He was also named Most Valuable Player and awarded the Golden Glove as the best goalkeeper.
• Sandjar Ahmadi, Zohib Islam Amiri, Rafi Barekzai, Mansur Faqiryar and Mustafa Hadid were accepted into the Sportskeeda Team of the Tournament , with Afghanistan having the most players.
• Zohib Islam Amiri's goal against Sri Lanka was voted the most beautiful goal of the tournament. A total of four of the ten best goals were scored by an Afghan player.
• On September 14, 2013, the players, the coaching team and other officials received the High State Medal from Mir Masjidi Khan from President Hamid Karzai . The players also received prize money of 100,000 Afghani and an apartment in the Khwaja Rawash district of Kabul. Mansur Faqiryar was honored with an additional 1 million Afghani prize money for his special services.
• The Afghanistan Football Federation was awarded the FIFA Fair Play Prize on January 13, 2014, among other things for developments in the national team .

Victory celebration

During the finals, many people gathered for public viewing . When the final victory was certain, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands took to the streets to celebrate winning the South Asian Cup. There were car parades , there was dancing and joyful shots were fired , some of which were injured. The scale of the celebrations was unique in Afghan football history. The night after the final on September 12th, at the request of President Hamid Karzai, the flight back to Afghanistan took place. After landing at Kabul airport , the team was personally received by the president. This was followed by a trip to the Ghazi Stadium , where the players and their coaches and supervisors were celebrated with the trophy in front of tens of thousands of spectators and thanked the fans for their support.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ At the South Asian Cup 2009 India competed with a U-23 team; FIFA does not rate this game. This means that India has only officially played against Afghanistan three times.

1. ↑ Afghanistan wins first home game since 2003 ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: RP online . August 20, 2013, accessed May 18, 2016 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Amoy Goshal: SAFF Championship 2013: Team Profile - Afghanistan In: Sportskeeda . August 27, 2013, accessed May 18, 2016
3. ↑ Final squad of Afghanistan on Soccerway
4. ↑ Ahmadi: Courage was rewarded In: fifa.com . October 22, 2013, accessed May 20, 2016
5. ↑ SAFF Championship 2013 Draw Held In: goalnepal.com . July 30, 2013, accessed May 19, 2016
6. ↑ Goals and highlights of the game against Bhutan on the video platform YouTube
7. ↑ Goals and highlights of the game against Sri Lanka on the video platform YouTube
8. ↑ Goals and highlights of the game against the Maldives on the video platform YouTube
9. ↑ Ayush Srivastava: 'Penalty is a fifty-fifty chance and today I was lucky' - Afghanistan goalkeeper Mansur Faqiryar In: goal.com . September 9, 2013, accessed May 19, 2016
10. ↑ Goals and highlights of the game against Nepal on the video platform YouTube
11. ↑ Goals and highlights of the game against India on the video platform YouTube
12. ↑ Afghanistan celebrates after victory against India In: kicker.de . September 11, 2013, accessed May 19, 2016
13. ↑ ^{a b} Official list of winners
14. ↑ Player rating of the semi-finals
15. ↑ Player rating of the final
16. ↑ Official announcement on the competition's Facebook page
17. ↑ Top 10 goals of the South Asian Cup on the video platform YouTube
18. ↑ Video of the award ceremony on the YouTube video platform
19. ↑ Ghanizada: Karzai honors Afghan football team for SAFF Cup victory in: Khaama Press . September 14, 2013, accessed on May 20, 2016
20. ↑ President Karzai Appreciates Goalkeeper of Afghanistan National Football Team and Chairman of Afghanistan Football Federation In: embassyofafghanistan.org September 14, 2013, accessed on May 20, 2016 (English)
21. ↑ Afghanistan win FIFA Fair Play Award In: the-afc.com . January 15, 2014, accessed May 20, 2016
22. ↑ ^{a b} Video of the celebrations on the YouTube video platform
23. ↑ ^{a b} Victoria Reith: South Asian Champions on September 11th: A victory for 30 million Afghans In: Zeit online . September 17, 2013, accessed May 26, 2016
24. ↑ Afghanistan celebrates Oldenburg's goalkeeper In: NWZ online . September 13, 2013, accessed May 26, 2016
25. ↑ Afghanistan celebrates Oldenburg's goalkeeper In: Nordwest-Zeitung . September 13, 2013, accessed May 20, 2016
26. ↑ In Afghanistan shots are fired - in celebration of the historic victory in: srf.ch . September 12, 2013, accessed May 20, 2016
27. ↑ Report and video on srf.ch
28. ↑ Faqiryar: A football fairy tale à la Hollywood In: fifa.com . May 6, 2014, accessed May 20, 2016
29. ↑ Mirko Schneider: The Afghan Dream . In: The world . October 9, 2013, accessed May 20, 2016