Adversity isn’t new for Pakistan football. It is the reality that their head coach Shahzad Anwar and his team acknowledge without hesitation.
Perhaps why the neighbouring country’s contingent took everything that happened prior to the start of their SAFF Championship campaign in their stride. Though the delay in receiving visas, lack of sleep and food, landing in Bengaluru less than six hours before their first match against India was difficult, they expect to finish on a high, said Anwar.
“The minimum expectation for us in the SAFF has always been the semifinals,” said 45-year-old Anwar. “These are stronger opponents for us. In the first game the external factors damaged our performance, then we lost to Kuwait and now we will take on Nepal,” he added.
If reaching the last-four stage was the goal, two back-to-back defeats with similar scoreline of 0-4 against India and Kuwait took Pakistan out of the tournament and their expectations falling short. They were coming to India after losing all the three games in the 4-nation tournament in Mauritius.
But the losing streak will not deter their will or motivation as they are excited about facing bigger challenges, the first being a World Cup qualifier game in October.
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“What is important for us is the World Cup qualifying game in October. For us these games are crucial as Pakistan has never won a single game of WC qualifiers. We will know our opponent on July 21,” he explained.
“This match will decide the future of football in Pakistan. If we win the game then the football activities will be more in Pakistan. The fans will look forward to our performance as we will get another six matches, home and away, in the group. Then we also get to play the Asian Cup qualifier but if we lose then everything is going to go down for the next three years.”
Anwar hopes that the Pakistan Football Federation observe and learn from their Indian counterparts to grow the sport back home.
“Our problem is the lack of good clubs. We still only have the institutional clubs and we need to start a professional league like ISL. But the growth of players is not possible if they only play with Army, Navy and Air Force teams. There are 32 teams, including Air Force, WAPDA, KRL.”