Margao: The Maldives women's football team arrived in Goa without their main goalkeeper and with inexperienced players who are more comfortable on a futsal court than a football field. Their campaign was further hampered when half the team missed their connecting flight and were stranded in Mumbai for several hours, only checking into the team hotel on the morning of their opening match against India.
Early Exit but Brave Hearts
Maldives became the first team to be eliminated from the SAFF Women's Championship in Goa. Despite returning home without a single point, the lowest-ranked side in South Asia won many hearts with a courageous performance against defending champions Bangladesh.
Coach Sabah Mohamed Ibrahim expressed pride in her team after their 4-2 loss to Bangladesh at Fatorda on Thursday. 'We didn't have enough time for recovery after the loss against India, but I am incredibly proud of the girls, they gave everything,' she said. 'The focus was on maintaining discipline and shape. I told the girls not to worry about the score; if they score one, try and stop the second. If they score another one, stop the third.'
Remarkable Improvement
In the previous edition two years ago, Maldives conceded 25 goals in two games. Jaded, they conceded 11 in their opening match against India earlier this week. When Bangladesh scored the first goal within 14 seconds and continued to attack, many feared another heavy defeat for the team ranked 167th in the world. However, at the hour mark, the teams were level at 2-2, and Maldives were only undone by an unfortunate late goalkeeping error. A tired added-time goal saved two-time champions Bangladesh from major embarrassment.
Challenges and Aspirations
'Compared to India and Bangladesh, we are not professionals. We don't even have a professional league. The girls come from futsal. When this tournament is hosted, we just come and participate,' Ibrahim explained. A former SAFF champion as a player with Maldives in 2008, Ibrahim was coaching the under-17 team when asked to take charge of the seniors. With limited preparation time and lack of experience, the 2-4 loss against Bangladesh demonstrated that they can punch above their weight if they play more than the two games they had last year.
'The girls need to play more friendlies, make mistakes, and learn,' said Ibrahim.
