South Asian Football Federation Championship:

Confident Lankans confront Maldives tomorrow

By Prince Gunasekara in Kathmandu

Sri Lanka football team, which has received a tremendous boost with the appointment of Brazilian coach Claudio Roberto, will face the Maldives under floodlights tomorrow (Monday) starting at 6.30pm in their first match in the 10th South Asian Federation Football Championship, which is being worked off in Dasarath Ransala Stadium, Kathmandu, Nepal.

It is an important assignment for both the Sri Lankan outfit and the new Brazilian coach Roberto as this is his first assignment as the Lankan coach. The new mentor of the island nation’s soccerites, said that the Lankans are in with a chance of beating Maldives on Monday. “We have got an energetic young squad. The outfit is really strong as they are in good spirit having practised hard. The boys had a complete practice session in Colombo. They had some experience, which they gained from the recently concluded Bangkok tour. Hopefully we are in a fighting spirit to compete against any opposition as we are going with a proper plan,” a confident Roberto said yesterday.

After winning the SAFF Gold Cup in 1995, Sri Lanka soccer was on a downward trend in the recent past and the country is hoping that there will be a resurgence in Lanka’s soccer with their performance in this tournament.

Sri Lanka will be competing against Maldives, Afghanistan and Bhutan in the preliminary round and they have to win at least two matches to advance to the semi-finals in the eight-nation tournament, which also features Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the host nation Nepal. Sri Lanka will face two tough matches against Maldives and Afghanistan in the preliminary stage. The islanders had defeated Bhutan on several occasions in the last SAFF Championship held in India two years ago. Bhutan suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the last championship. In the Asian Football Federation Challenge Cup, Sri Lanka were narrowly beaten by Afghanistan 1-0.

During the last SAFF Championship, Sri Lanka suffered a 3-1 defeat by Afghanistan and in 2009 Championship Maldives recorded an emphatic 5-1 win over Lankans.

The governing body, Asian Football Federation has decided to award cash prizes for the winner USD 50,000 and USD 25,000 for the runner-up.

The third place and fourth place will be awarded USD 10,000 each apart from the Golden Boot Award for the best player in the South Asian Region.