Thursday Sep 18, 2025
Thursday Sep 18, 2025
Tuesday, 9 September 2025 02:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Althaf Nawaz
The Sri Lankan national soccer team will face an acid test and put up a much-improved performance against the visiting Maldivian team in their second South Asian Super Cup encounter with kick-off rescheduled for 5.45 p.m. under lights.
After a 3-0 humiliating defeat few days back in the curtain raiser of this championship at the same venue, Daily FT spoke to FSL President Jaswar Umar to inquire about his team’s preparation. He was of the view that his team had a very bad day and that doesn’t mean every game is going to have the same result.
“Well, we absolutely had a very poor performance last Saturday which I feel the boys had an off day. Last few days we had some serious discussion with the coaching staff and the players about our lapses. We can see the boys are much determined and are pumped up to give their best today for the country,” said Jaswar.
They are likely to adopt an attacking strategy from the outset with a different game plan from the last game.
“The coach had several sessions with the boys on our plan for today’s game which will be more offensive than the previous game. The boys are eager both to win this game by a higher goal margin to annex the much-coveted championship,” Jaswar further added.
The match is rescheduled for 5.45 p.m. due to the heavy traffic in the evening, where spectators are likely to miss the first few vital minutes of the action. The FSL has decided to allow school children to enter the tiers free of charge, while the other seats prices have also been slashed to attract more spectators.
Maldives are a side brimming with confidence after they proved their critics wrong. Nevertheless, today’s game is poised to be a cliff-hanger as the hosts will have to score 4 goals while limiting the rivals to a barren score card to win the championship, which could prove a herculean task for them.
