The opening match of the AFC President’s Cup group A between
Khan Research Laboratories Pakistan and Erchim Football Club Mongolia remained
goalless here at the Punjab Football Stadium on Tuesday night and with this
draw both the teams earned a point each.

Now Pakistan will have to beat the third team of the Group A, Power Company,
Chinese Taipei with big margin to move to the next stage of the qualifying
round. The KRL Pakistan’s next match is scheduled to be played on May 12.

The match was not only the test of the former national coach Tariq Lutfi but
was also an assessment of security situation, which has been the issue of
reservation for foreign team’s visit to Pakistan. The security in certain ways
proved quite tight with such an arrangement that even some of the accredited
journalists and photographers were forced to pull out of match coverage. In
other wards it was a nightmare for media assembled at the venue to cover the
event with no proper facility to do their job. As of the approach of the
Lutfi’s team, it remained the same as it has always produced a result of
stalemate.

All the tall claims of Lutfi and his team of giving productive result dashed in
when the team failed to get a single goal in the first half and there was hope
of improved performance in the second session but the team went into much more
defensive mode.

In front of a barely 200-crowd and double the security personnel, there were
not much to be seen from the KRL players despite the fact that they had the
ball possession for majority of the time and had shown aggressiveness for at
least the first session. Even Pakistan under-22 boys who were among the people
in the stands did not get enough knowledge to learn from their seniors playing
the qualifying round match. For having more possession, there were more
chances, but the final delivery in to the cage was not that perfect. In clear
words the poor finishing remained the bane of the team that has ever been
coached by Lutfi.

The prominent possessors of the ball were Kaleemullah, Rizwan Asif, Qasim and
even captain Samar Ishaq who throttled the ball from right to left and had
beaten Erchim defenders a couple of times. But the story remained the same. On
two certain occasions when there was only the rival team’s goal-keeper left to
be beaten, the Pakistan forwards were off target. The second half too saw the
team got open house for nearly half a dozen times but the match remained
goalless till the final whistle was blown and with this draw KRL missed an easy
opportunity to stake its way into the AFC President’s Cup next stage. Tomorrow,
(May 10) Erchim FC will take on Taiwan Power Company, Chinese Taipei.

Source: www.pakistantoday.com