Sri Lanka will make a couple of strategic changes to their approach when they take on Nepal in their second game of the 13th SAFF Football Tournament at the National Stadium in Male today. The kickoff is scheduled for 9.30 p.m. (Lankan time).
After an unfortunate defeat at the hands of Bangladesh due to a blunder made by the Syrian referee Feras Taweel, which resulted in losing the game 1-0 at a time when the momentum was with the Sri Lankans, the Lankan dribblers are to take a different approach and are determined to put up an improved performance in today’s game. They are to make some changes to the start-up line up which was hinted by team sources speaking to ‘Daily News’ yesterday.
The 5-3-2 format in which they engaged in the opening game against Bangladesh seemed rather a semi-attacking format. But after a serious team meeting, the management agreed with players to infuse an offensive mode of play firing on all cylinders from the starting whistle. They will make use of the services of some of the young scintillating players like Dillon de Silva, Wazeem Razik, Mohamed Shifan and Kavindu Ishan in a bid to make the initial scoring opportunity in the first half, which is very crucial in the result of the game.
The Lankans will have to win at least two more matches and force a draw if they are to secure a place in the all-important grand final on the 16th of this month. The post-match reports indicated they were occupying 42% possession which is a very positive sign from the team’s point of view.
Their progress indicates some positive signs of improvement by each match. The records indicate that Sri Lanka has confronted the Nepalese team on 17 occasions since 1984 and has a better track record winning six matches losing three and the rest ending in a draw. Nepal has come into this tournament losing to Oman 7-2 recently but managed to notch up a close 1-0 win over Maldives in their curtain-raiser a few days back.
According to reliable sources, they possess a very young but talented side with a recent reshuffle in their system which has managed to rejuvenate them to form a formidable side that has shown a lot of promise.
The Lankan coach Amir Alagic speaking to the media at a pre-press conference said, “It was a very unfortunate situation the team met in the first game due to the blunder made by the referee, which subsequently ended up us losing the game where we had firm control.”
“We as a unit are pretty happy to see the team’s performance which has come up in a short time. Nevertheless, past is past and we aim to put up a better performance in the game against Nepal,” concluded Alagic.
by Daily News Sri Lanka
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