By Sports Reporter/Doha
The 15th round of the Qatar Stars League kicks off today and all teams will be looking to restore some kind of normalcy after the roller coaster results that the previous two rounds have produced.
The team that was firmly in the limelight in those two rounds was Al Wakrah, who embarrassed Al Gharafa 6-1 and then defeated El Jaish 2-1, making everybody sit up and take notice. Gharafa who were at the receiving end against Wakrah, were involved in another seven-goal thriller against Umm Salal but ended up losing 3-4. And then to make matters exciting in the title race, Al Shahaniya produced a strong counter attacking game to down table toppers Al Sadd 3-1, making them drop to second in the rankings.
“Strange” was how most of the coaches described these results during the pre-match press conferences and that means teams will be looking to win this round of QSL matches before going into what will be a long, long break due to the upcoming AFC Asian Cup.
Sadd, playing against Kharaitiyat, will be hoping to put their first loss this season behind them and will be favourites going into this match considering that their opponents are currently 12th in the rankings.
“After the defeat against Shahaniya we need a big reaction from our players. We need to forget what happened. We lost because of the mistakes that we made. This game needs 100 per cent concentration. We need to continue to create opportunities to score and convert them,” said Sadd coach Hussein Ammouta during the pre-match press conference.
“Our last game wasn’t bad but we made some mistakes that gave the opponents chances to score. We were in the opponent’s area 52 times against their 17 times. We made more passes than them. There was a big gap in the stats but they were more efficient. We still have a chance to come back strong, we only need to concentrate and focus during the game,” he added.
This will be the first game for Kharaitiyat’s interim coach, Yasser al-Sibaei and he will be keen to start on a good note. “The ambition of the team’s management is to be in a good place in the rankings. I will try to continue working with the team in order to fulfil that goal. This won’t be an easy game. We are playing the joint leaders in the table. We have the quality to stop Sadd and end on a high before the break comes.”
“Sadd is coming from a defeat against Al Shahaniya. We need to use that situation and ensure we don’t give them a chance to react against us. They have lost five points in the last two matches so they will come at us strongly. But we also have the ambition to fight for the points,” he added.
The other team in a bit of a spot in Jaish who will be playing their first match after the exit of their coach Nabil Maaloul. Their previous three games have seen them lose two and draw one. They will be playing Salal, who are currently on a nine-match unbeaten run, including their exciting 4-3 win over Gharafa.
Jaish’s Abdelkader Megaseeb, technical director for all the youth teams, has been handed the reins and he is confident that his team will bounce back. “El Jaish have always had good relationships with the Gulf countries. When Nabil Maaloul was called for the Kuwait post, the team management agreed to release the coach because of these good relations. And since I am the technical director for the youth teams, I was called in to lead during this transitional period. “
“I am happy to work with these talented players. The team needs a bit of tuning. We will work on this and try and get more points. Last season too we were in a similar state but came back strongly. We hope to repeat that this season too. The game against Salal is very important for us. We need to get back to winning ways before the break. El Jaish will do everything it can to regain the position it deserves.”
Salal assistant coach Thamer Abdullah was aware that his team haven’t won against Jaish in a long time but was confident that the result would be in his favour. “Salal hasn’t won against Jaish in a long time but we are ready. We have the confidence. We also know that Jaish will be trying to come back strongly but we will be ready for them. We have a strong defensive unit, the second best in the league right now but we conceded five goals in the last two games. So we are trying to resolve this. In the seven matches before that we conceded only once.”
“We know where Umm Salal is in the rankings. The QSL has been strange these last two rounds. We won one game and we came back to the top 4. The game against El Jaish will be very difficult but we need to win this game and take three points in order to stay in third place in the rankings. We want to end on a high, especially because of the break,” he added.
LEKHWIYA take on al KHOR
The team that has benefitted from Sadd’s loss is Lekhwiya who now find themselves at the top of rankings. But
Lekhwiya coach Michael Laudrup is wary of the lower ranked teams because of the results in the previous two rounds. “At this point Sadd and us are the two teams, side by side vying for the title. Also at this moment there is quite a gap down to the third and fourth placed teams. We have however seen some very surprising results in the last two rounds. We have seen Sadd losing points to two bottom teams. We have seen Wakrah win big against Gharafa, Sailiya winning against Jaish,” he said.
“And the team we are playing on Friday, Al Khor, have also got some good results. I saw them against Umm Salal. They came very close to a win but finished 3-3. This shows that teams in the lower half of the table are doing well at the moment. It also shows that even if you are the better team, if you are not focused then you can end up on the losing side.”
“The match between Shahaniya and Al Sadd was definitely a lesson for us too. Sadd had the ball all the time but Shahaniya had a few counter attacks and scored from them. If a team attacks like how Sadd or we do, then you are always at a risk of conceding goals.”
Lekhwiya’s opponents, Khor, are coming off a 1-0 win over Arabi but know that Laudrup’s boys will be a much tougher opposition.
“We are facing Lekhwiya, one of the best teams in the QSL. We will do our best to collect some points. It will be hard but the league is a competition. Every week you face the same challenges. We have to respect that and try and reach our aims,” said Khor coach Lazlo Boloni
“We have been through a slump but we are recovering. When results start to go your way, you start to feel better. When you win one game you feel more powerful, the jokes in the dressing room increase.”
“At Al Khor, I never saw an atmosphere where it was difficult to work. The players listen to me and listen to our president even in very difficult moments. This is a team with which you can work easily. Of course winning does make matters easy for everybody in the team.”
Al Sadd players react after their 1-3 defeat by Al Shahaniya in the previous round of the Qatar Stars League, which was their first loss this season.
