Gulf News - Al
Shaab blanked Al Wasl 3-0 in a dazzling performance at the Al Wasl stadium
in Zaabil in the First division football league last night.
With this win, Al Shaab leapfrogged to the second place with 25 points. They
are one adrift of leaders Al Wahda, who have 26 points. The heavy defeat
left Al Wasl, who have 12 points, in the relegation zone. And they will have
to work hard in the coming matches. Al Wasl played with 10 men after
defender Sami Rabie was sent off for a harsh foul on Jasim Doukhy in the
55th minute.
Al Wasl were the best team in the first 15 minutes. They attacked but
without real danger to the Al Shaab goal.
Al Shaab attacks were dangerous whenever the ball came to Mohammed Suroor or
Samir Ibrahim at the front.
Samir opened the score for Al Shaab in the 19th minute. Ali Abdullah crossed
to him from the left and Samir's header beat Al Wasl custodian Salah Hussain
to his left. Salah miscalculated Samir's header and thought the ball was
going out.
Al Wasl attacks were led by Khalid Darwish in the midfield to his
frontliners Iranian Farhad Majiedi and his countryman Hamid Kavianpour, who
returned to the team again thanks to the poor standard of Argentinian player
Walter Silvani. Silvani's contract was terminated last week.
The Al Wasl attacks were blocked all the time by the strong Al Shaab defence
led by Rashid Abdul Rahman, Omran Jessmy and Saeed Yousuf.
In the 34th minute Al Wasl midfielder Jasim Bilal realising that his
attackers couldn't go past Al Shaab defence, fired a cracker from outside
the penalty area. The shot bounced off the bar and Al Shaab keeper diverted
the ball to the corner.
After three minutes Kavianpour advanced to face the keeper. But his shot was
tipped to the corner by Shaab keeper Jamal Abdullah.
Suroor added the second goal for Al Shaab in the 42nd minute with a fine
header following a free kick taken by Jasim Doukhy from the left flank.
Issa Ali lost a good chance to reduce the defecit for Al Wasl when he shot
straight to the keeper's hands from close range after two minutes of
resumption.
Al Shaab defended well and kept Al Wasl strikers at bay most of the second
session. Al Wasl midfielders and attackers committed lot of mistakes in
passing to each other. Al Shaab took advantage of this and launched several
quick attacks by Jasim Doukhy, Abdul Rahim Choclate, Saif Mohammed and
Suroor.
Al Wasl coach took out two of his good playmakers Kavianpour and Khalid
Darwish, which didn't satisfy the supporters. Al Was coach also made Farhad
come down to the midfield to collect the balls and create attacks. Suroor
and Saif lost two scoring chances in the last minutes. However Suroor sealed
victory for Al Shaab when he scored the third goal from the spot. Al Wasl
keeper brought him down inside the box and Suroor made no mistake in
converting the spot kick to the left of Salah Hussain.
In the second match Sharjah played a goalless draw with Al Ittihad in Kalba
stadium. Ittihad become seventh with 13 points and Sharjah stayed 10th with
11.