Fall Season - Week Five - November 4th

8 PM: Shukr vs Haya

This game features two teams trending in opposite directions. Shukr has only one win in their campaign and been shutout in back to back games, first by Yaqeen and then last week by Ihsan.  The goals have suddenly disappeared after exploding for six against Sabr.  At that time it was asked if that game represented an anomaly, where Shukr took full advantage of the circumstances that week.   It seems fair to expect more from the top two picks in this year’s draft in Arif Bijabhai and Idrees Deen as neither are in the Top Five in scoring.  For Haya, they are undefeated so far coming off a phenomenal performance led by Mehmed Rizvanovic.  Rizvanovic with line mates Aazar Zafar and Huzaifa Manjra powered Haya to victory over still win-less Ikhlas.  Shukr is in for a long night if Hisham Ali and Naeem Akhter get going. Factor in that Khalid Mufti is in net for Haya and there is a real risk that Shukr could be shut out three games in a row.

9 PM: Ihsan vs Emaan      

The last time these two teams met,  Emaan had no answer for Ihsan’s Hany Solomon back in Week 2 where Ihsan came away with a 3-2 win.  On that night Ihsan did an exceptional job stifling the Emaan forwards who were held to only five shots the entire 2nd half.  Since that loss Emaan has responded with back to back wins where they outscored their opponents 10-3 with Waqar Khan tallying five goals in that span.  With his hot play, Khan has moved to the top of the scoring leader race while Hany Solomon has cooled off and no longer leads the league in goals.  However Ihsan is more than a one player team on offense as last week they got contributions from Amad Khan and Azim Siddique. Although we are not half way into the regular season the stakes are huge as a loss by Emaan puts a big dent in their hopes for a first place finish.

10 PM: Sabr vs Yaqeen

Although looking at their record, Sabr has shown positive signs of improvement as the season moves along.  They managed to get a tie against Haya and last week were leading Emaan at the end of the first half.  For Sabr they need to maintain their composure as this was their ultimate undoing last week by taking some unnecessary penalties.  Naiem Malik has a plethora of experience to continue to make improvements for his squad to get back on track.  The question for Sabr will continue to be their goaltender Imran Merchant; he has been playing better in comparison to his first few games but he is still a work in progress and needs more time to develop.  If he is able to put it all together and Sabr makes the playoffs then watch out for this team.  This week they face off against Yaqeen who are coming off a bye-week. This is a rematch from Week One which saw Yaqeen emerge as 5-1 victors. Yaqeen forwards in particular are probably anticipating this game as both Sajjid Ayubi and Arslan Mian are no longer the top two in scoring and are motivated to get back to the top of the board.