Soccer South Asian Cup 2015 / Afghanistan

This article covers the Afghan national soccer team at the 2015 South Asian Cup . Afghanistan took part in a South Asian Cup for the seventh time and as defending champion for the first time. In the final on January 3, 2016, Afghanistan met India for the third time in a row in a South Asian Cup final, and the final was lost for the second time since 2011 .

preparation

The Afghan Football Association announced in 2014 that it was moving to the Central Asian Football Federation . However, since no Central Asian Championship was initially planned, the national team was allowed to participate in the South Asian Championship again, which is why it was the last participation in the competition. A targeted preparation in the form of games did not take place, as there is no qualifying round at the South Asian Cup. In addition, qualifying games for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup took place in November 2015 .

On December 11, 2015, the national team began their training camp in the Afghan capital Kabul , which was the first time in over two years that an Afghan national soccer team had trained on Afghan soil; but this was overshadowed by a terrorist attack by the Taliban on the Spanish embassy, ​​which was located near the team hotel. Coach Petar Šegrt , who has only been in office since November 1, 2015, would have resigned if one of his players had been harmed. Three days later, the team flew to Qatar for the second training camp before traveling to the finals of the South Asian Cup in Thiruvananthapuram a week later .

Squad

The table lists all players who were in the squad for the 2015 South Asian Cup from December 23, 2015 to January 3, 2016. Rohid Samandari ( De Spinghar Bazan ) and Mustafa Afshar ( Shaheen Asmayee ) were deleted from the provisional squad . On December 24th it was announced that Josef Shirdel ( ETSV Weiche ) and Shabir Isoufi ( ASWH ) will be out of the tournament due to injury; The subsequent nomination of players was, however, waived, so that Afghanistan entered the South Asian Cup with a total of 20 players.

No.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	Games	Gates	Previous participations
goal
01	Ovays Azizi	IF Skjold Birkerød	Jan. 29, 1992	5	0	5	0
22nd	Fardeen Kohistani	Shaheen Asmayee	06 Sep 1994	4th	0	0	0
23	Hamidullah Haji Abdullah	unknown	June 30, 1994	0	0	0	0
Defense
20th	Mustafa Hadid	Altona 93	Aug 25, 1988	28	1	5	0	2008, 2009, 2013
03	Hassan Amin	1. FC Saarbrücken	Oct 12, 1991	8th	0	5	0
06th	Anoush Dastgir	FC Lienden	Nov. 27, 1989	3	0	2	0
13	Sayed Mohammad Hashemi	Shaheen Asmayee	02nd Mar 1994	2	0	5	1
14th	Masih Saighani	TSV Steinbach	22 Sep 1986	1	0	4th	2
04th	Roholla Iqbalzadeh	Byåsen top football	0Nov 2, 1994	1	0	2	0
midfield
18th	Ahmad Hatifie	unknown	13 Mar 1986	25th	2	4th	2	2011, 2013
08th	Faysal Shayesteh	FC Songkhla	June 21, 1991	17th	4th	5	3
02	Abassin Alikhil	Viktoria Aschaffenburg	Apr 19, 1991	17th	0	4th	0
17th	Mustafa Zazai	FC St. Pauli II	0May 9, 1993	15th	2	4th	0
11	Norlla Amiri	Trelleborgs FF	23 Aug 1991	6th	2	4th	0
21st	Kani Taher	SC Kapellen-Erft	0Apr 4, 1991	4th	0	4th	1
19th	Omid Popalzay	Achilles '29	Jan. 25, 1996	3	0	4th	2
44	Omid Homauoni	Oqaban Hindukush	Aug 16, 1994	0	0	2	0
attack
07th	Zubayr Amiri	SC Hessen Dreieich	0May 2, 1990	7th	0	4th	2
09	Khaibar Amani	SC Hessen Dreieich	0Feb 6, 1987	5	1	5	4th
28	Fardin Hakimi	Oqaban Hindukush	05th Sep 1995	2	0	2	0
Trainer
	Petar Šegrt	Head coach	0May 8, 1966	1
	Ali Askar Lali	Assistant coach	19 Sep 1959	9
	Eric Friedrich Gasp	Goalkeeping coach		1

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 November 12, 2015).
2. ↑ This means participation in previous South Asian Championships .

Of the six players who were used in all five games, next to goalkeeper Ovays Azizi only Hassan Amin was in use for the entire season.

Finals

Group stage

When the final round was drawn on September 16, 2015, Afghanistan was placed in Pot 1 and was automatically group B head, as India was the host for Group A. The Maldives , Bhutan and Bangladesh were drawn . Afghanistan met Bangladesh for the last time on June 2, 2015, when they parted 1: 1 in Dhaka . The only meeting at a South Asian Championship ended in a draw in 2008 (2: 2). In addition, Afghanistan was the only opponent in their history for Bangladesh against whom they went undefeated (one win, four draws). Bhutan, against which Afghanistan won their highest victory to date at the 2011 South Asian Cup (8: 1), was the last opponent at the 2013 South Asian Cup ; Afghanistan won the game 3-0 on September 2, 2013. Afghanistan played against the Maldives at the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 in Malé on May 29, 2015 in the game for third place and lost 7: 8 on penalties ; at a South Asian Cup they met three times (one draw, two defeats).

Despite the fact that Afghanistan entered the tournament as the defending champions and also occupied the top position in the FIFA world rankings before the tournament started, there was some unrest in the run-up to the tournament. Many regular players who were still there when they won the title in 2013 did not take part in the South Asian Championship due to differences within the team (e.g. Zohib Islam Amiri ), injuries ( Mansur Faqiryar ) or because they were not approved by the club ( Djelaludin Sharityar ). The associated inexperience of the squad and the installation of a new coaching staff shortly before the start of the tournament meant that the team was not considered a top favorite to defend its title. After three group games won very confidently, however, that changed quickly and Afghanistan was again considered a clear candidate for the title.

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Afghanistan	3	3	0	0	011: 100	+10	09
2.	Maldives	3	2	0	1	007: 600	+1	06th
3.	Bangladesh	3	1	0	2	004: 700	−3	03
4th	Bhutan	3	0	0	3	001: 900	−8	00

Wed., December 24, 2015
Afghanistan	-	Bangladesh	4: 0 (3: 0)
Friday, December 26, 2015
Bhutan	-	Afghanistan	0: 3 (0: 2)
Sun, December 28, 2015
Afghanistan	-	Maldives	4: 1 (2: 1)

Final round

Semifinals

Thursday, December 31, 2015
Afghanistan	-	Sri Lanka	5: 0 (1: 0)

So far there have been seven games against Sri Lanka, five of which have been won, one has ended in a draw and one has been lost. The 5-0 victory in the semi-finals meant the highest semi-final victory of all time in a South Asian Cup and thus surpassed the previous record of the Maldives, which also won 5-1 against Sri Lanka in 2009 .

final

Sun, January 3, 2016
India	-	Afghanistan	2: 1 n.V. (1: 1; 0: 0)

When Afghanistan and India reached the finals again, a novelty occurred in the history of the tournament: for the first time, the same teams met three times in a row in a final. With the goals of Zubayr Amiri and Jeje Lalpekhlua it went into extra time, where Sunil Chhetri scored the goal to make it 2-1. Subsequently, referee Hiroyuki Kimura took center stage, as two possible penalties were denied to the Afghans and coach Petar Šegrt was expelled from the interior of the stadium for complaining. Due to the 1: 2 defeat, Afghanistan could not win the final of the South Asian Cup on Indian soil again after 2011.

statistics

• The semi-final game against Sri Lanka was the 25th game in the South Asian Cup for Afghanistan and the 100th international match overall.
• Afghanistan was the third team after India and Bangladesh to reach the final for the third time in a row. Ahmad Hatifie was the first Afghan player to play in three finals.
• With its third entry into the final, Afghanistan and Bangladesh occupy third place in the all-time ranking behind India and the Maldives.
• With 17: 3 goals, Afghanistan had its best hit rate at the South Asian Championships and set the goal record set by the Maldives at the South Asian Cup in 2013.
• The 17 Afghan goals were distributed among eight players ( Khaibar Amani (4 goals), Faysal Shayesteh (3 goals), Masih Saighani , Omid Popalzay , Ahmad Hatifie , Zubayr Amiri (each 2 goals), Sayed Mohammad Hashemi and Kani Taher (each 1 Goal)). The team thus took first place in the ranking of teams with the highest number of goalscorers in the tournament.
• Omid Popalzay scored the 100th goal of the Afghan national team with the 4-1 result against the Maldives.
• Two players ( Mustafa Hadid and Ahmad Hatifie) were part of the team that won the South Asian Cup in 2013.

Awards

• Khaibar Amani won the tournament's top scorer with four goals ahead of teammate Faysal Shayesteh (3 goals).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ India to Face Pakistan in 2015 SAFF Championship Opener . In: NDTVSports . September 16, 2015, accessed May 17, 2016
2. ↑ Report ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the official website of the Afghan Football Association (from December 12, 2015)  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Markus Geisler: The most dangerous job in world football In: Die Welt . May 12, 2016. Retrieved May 17, 2016
4. ^ Spanish policeman killed in attack in Kabul In: Die Zeit . December 11, 2015, accessed May 17, 2016
5. ↑ Report ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the official website of the Afghan Football Association (from December 15, 2015)  
6. ↑ Afghanistan ( Memento of the original dated December 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the official website of the SAFF-Cup (accessed on December 23, 2015)  
7. ↑ Report ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the official website of the Afghan Football Association (from December 24, 2015)  
8. ↑ Mohammad Jubear: Unbeaten record against Afghanistan inspiring Bangladesh, says captain Mamunul In: bdnews24.com . December 23, 2015, accessed May 17, 2016
9. ↑ posting on the Facebook page of Hashmatullah Barakzai
10. ↑ Atanu Mitra: Afghanistan and Maldives get ready to give India a tough time In: goal.com . December 22, 2015, accessed on May 17, 2016
11. ↑ Manas Mitul: Defending champs Afghanistan are the team to beat . In: Firstpost Sports . December 25, 2015, accessed May 18, 2016
12. ↑ Hope we can use the home advantage, says India coach Stephen Constantine In: Indian Express . January 2, 2016, accessed May 18, 2016
13. ↑ Match report: India 2–1 Afghanistan In: saffsuzukicup.com . January 3, 2016, accessed May 24, 2016
14. ↑ India 2-1 Afghanistan: Blue Tigers win seventh title In: goal.com . January 3, 2016, accessed May 24, 2016