8:00 PM- Yaqeen (0-1-0) vs Haya (0-0-1):
Yaqeen (white) enters this contest by hanging onto dear life against Emaan for the victory in Week One. Despite a very strong start in the first half, it was Yaqeen that was on their heels near the end with Emaan having several opportunities to tie the game. Definitely there could be improvements on the way Yaqeen closed out that game. On a positive note, Maaz Haq and Arif Bijabhai were particularly impressive with four and three points respectively. Their efforts see them ranked 1st and 2nd in the overall points board. Is this a slight glimpse of a new dynamic duo in the making?
In comparison to Yaqeen, Haya (grey) would start slow but finish superb in Week One against Ikhlas. After going down by two goals, they would rally and walk out of The Hangar with a point for their efforts. Just don’t tell the rest of the league how scary this team could potentially be as they overcame adversity without the following players: Adeel Awan, Sufyaan Shaikh, Waqar Khan and Yasin Admani. So definitely, these boys are feeling themselves and spectators will be interested in seeing how lethal this team is with their full roster (remember we had Haya going to the Finals in a preseason previews).
Hamidi Prediction: Haya win
9:00 PM- Shukr (0-1-0) vs Ridha (0-1-0):
These two teams from The Jerusalem Division battle it out in a huge four-point game. Both Shukr (red) and Ridha (blue) are coming off defeats. Shukr was the only team not to score a goal in Week One as Sabr’s Ali Khawja collected his first shutout of the young season. Shukr’s downfall in the first week was they lacked a sense of urgency to start the game. They looked very tentative and out of sync as in the first half they mustered a measly six shots on net. You can’t expect to score if you don’t get shots on net. Sufyan Kazi did miss Shukr’s first game, so having him in the lineup should help the offense. A disaster outcome for Shukr is if they get shutout again or score only one goal and lose. I say this because scoring goals stems from confidence and if Shukr can’t find the net again then this will become a psychological struggle they will have to deal with all season.
Ridha (blue) also suffered a defeat in the opening week at the hands of division rivals Taqwa, 2-1. As advertised in the preseason previews Ridha plays a run and gun style. What this means is they want the game played at a quicker pace and challenges their opponents to keep up. With things wide open, Ridha will get plenty of chances and likewise the other team will also get chances. If you want a basketball analogy, their games is like watching The Golden State Warriors vs Houston Rockets play. In Week One, they simply did not have enough fire power beyond Yusuf Ingar. With the amount of chances this team creates other players on this team need to chip in in order to be successful. Lastly, coming into the season not much was known about goaltender, Mohammed Patel, he had a solid performance in particular in the first half turning away 14 of 15 shots faced. A loss against Shukr would be disastrous for Ridha as that would make it back to back defeats from divisional opponents.
Hamidi Prediction: Ridha win
10:00 PM- Ikhlas (0-0-1) vs Sabr (1-0-0):
Out of all the teams, it is safe to say Ikhlas (green) is having the worst start. If you were to tell me that my team would have a two-goal lead with 11 minutes to play and the other team would be missing one of their GMs (a guy who lead the league in points last year), in addition to their second, third and fourth round picks, then there really is not a scenario where I can imagine where my team does not win. However, such is I-Slam Hockey - you can’t take your foot off the gas pedal until the final buzzer. Ikhlas’ fortunes does not seem to be improving as Brian Beauvis, a replacement player GM’s Haris Mallick and Mehmed Rizvanovic tried to bring in was claimed by Emaan through the waiver wire. Nonetheless, they need to put these series of unfortunate events behind them and focus on the task at hand which is a huge four-point game against Mecca divisional foes, Sabr.
Sabr (yellow) is coming of a 2-0 victory against Shukr. It was well known coming that this team is very deep upfront. This was shown in Week 1 as they got goals from both the second and third line- Abdu Sharkawy and Rizwan Malik. Early impressions of this team is that no matter what line jumps over the boards they will be a threat to score. One aspect Sabr can work on is being more disciplined as they accumulated 12 minutes (nearly an entire half) in penalty minutes.
Hamidi Prediction: Sabr win
11:00 PM- Emaan (0-1-0) vs Ihsan (0-0-0):
Last week against Yaqeen, at least for the first half, Emaan (orange) looked like the “weakest team coming out of the draft”. You looked up at the scoreboard and it was 3-0 for Yaqeen with little less than half a period to play. Then all of a sudden Yaqeen get a power play and Rizwan Hassan gives his team some life. Not too long later Mazhar Hussain would score to make the closing minutes of the game really interesting. Did we prejudge this team too harshly? I mean, Emaan could have just went through the motions after falling behind by a field goal. To their credit they kept on chipping away and could have very much tied their Week One game. Not bad at all considering they were missing their first round pick, Zubair Wahid. The focus for this team is to carry that momentum they found late in the second half against their Medina Divisional Rivals, Ihsan.
Ihsan (teal) had a bye in the first week. Not much I can write about this team until we see them in action. Of course they have recognizable names such as, Huzaifa Manjra, Idress Deen, Akib Malik and Naeem Akhtar. However rumblings around the league suggests Tayyib Khan and Abdur Zuberi are sleeper picks. Lastly, we simply don’t know much about their goaltender Mohammad Kasuji. We have a lot more question than answers with this team, but we are all curious to see Ihsan in action.
Hamidi Prediction: Ihsan win
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