8:00 PM- Shukr vs Haya:
We are in the home stretch of the I-Slam schedule with only three games left to go. This game is huge and will most probably seal the faith of which teams finish top three overall. Why does it matter? If your team ends up finishing either fourth or fifth, the two teams would have to face each other in a single game wild-card elimination, where the winner will only have an hour rest to recover before facing the first overall seed in another single game elimination. So having two playoffs games in one night is without a doubt a treacherous road to the finals. Speaking of playoffs, Shukr (red) was in playoff-mode last week, demolishing Ikhlas (green) 5-0. The line of, Ibrahim Hindy, Dawood Ciombar and Humza Ali showed up in a big way, accounting for four of the five goals. They have given their team the opportunity to catch Haya (grey) in the standings and move up to the third spot. Haya, last Friday showed a lot of resiliency overcoming the challenge of playing with an empty net for the first five minutes (Kaunain Sayed got caught up in traffic). Furqan Salam notched another goal last week and is making a strong push to win the goal scoring title this season. In fact, the last time these teams met up on September, 29th, he was the difference, scoring both goals in a 2-1 versus Shukr.
9:00 PM Yaqeen vs Emaan:
BOOM! Guess who the new must see team is? Sabr (yellow)? Haya (grey)? Nope and nope! Emaan handled them both in back-to-back weeks (2-1 over Haya; 2-0 over Sabr). Now Emaan finds themselves vying for first overall in the standings. Again the importance as discussed above is finishing first would mean your team faces off against a weary opponent having to play a game one-hour earlier. After dispatching two of the top teams, tonight’s game against dead last Yaqeen (white) should be a breeze right? Well you would be inclined to think so if you look at Yaqeen’s performance last week. They lost against Haya 4-1 in spite of Haya starting off the game with an empty net! However, the outcome of this game might not be as clear cut as initially thought. In their first meeting, the two teams battled tooth and nail to a 0-0 draw. In case you are wondering in that contest both sides had all of their star players present. This might be hard to believe as Yaqeen seemingly seems to get beat by the rest of the league. But perhaps this is the game, versus a team they have showed some potential against that can help turn their season around.
10:00 PM Sabr vs Ikhlas:
Sabr is reeling, losers of two out of their last three games (defeated by Haya and Emaan). With playoffs right around the corner this isn’t the time for doubt to be creeping in. The error for margin is razor thin as now Emaan is right on their heels for the battle to finish first overall. Their opponents for tonight are Ikhlas, who seemingly in theory should not pose much of a threat. This might be exactly what the doctor order because in their prior meeting Ikhlas put up little resistance (losing 5-0). It is hard to imagine Sabr not winning this game, but you never know. This is I-Slam and it’s Friday Night Lights. Ikhlas comes into this battle desperate to hang on to the final playoff spot and Sabr has been trending in the wrong direction recently. Sound the alarms? We might have the right ingredients for an upset alert to conclude Week Eight.
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