The national football team’s coach, Mohamed Shiyaz (Mohan), has stated that the players’ effort was more important to him than the three-goal lead Maldives secured against Sri Lanka. Yesterday’s match was the first for Mohan as head coach since taking charge of the Maldives team late last month. In the first of two matches organized by Sri Lanka under the name South Asian Super Cup, Maldives won 3-0. Speaking after the match, Mohan said he was most satisfied with seeing the players’ effort rather than the match result. He said that despite winning by three goals against Sri Lanka, it wasn’t easy to play against that country. However, he noted that the result came from the players’ hard work.
“Even though the result was 3-0, this wasn’t an easy match. It was a very difficult match. Sri Lanka played very well,” said Mohan, who previously served as the national team’s assistant coach. “But our players worked very hard. The important thing is hard work. I told the players before the match too, that the result isn’t what’s important to me.” He said he had told the players before the match that he would be satisfied if they worked hard, regardless of the outcome.
“Today, the players demonstrated their effort at the highest level on the field. And we also won the match. Alhamdulillah,” Mohan said. Sri Lanka initially planned to organize a tournament with four countries under the name South Asian Super Cup. However, some countries invited by Football Sri Lanka indicated they couldn’t participate. Even then, Maldives had accepted the invitation and confirmed they would travel to Sri Lanka.
With Maldives accepting the invitation, Sri Lanka decided to play two matches against Maldives, with the trophy going to the team with the better aggregate result. The second match will be held next Tuesday. When a Sri Lankan journalist noted that Maldives was very close to the trophy with this win and asked about it, Mohan said they need to forget about today’s match. He said he doesn’t want to include the first match’s result when going into the second match. “The important thing is the upcoming match,” Mohan said. “When we go to the next match, we shouldn’t count this match’s result.” He said the team will focus on that match as well.
