Canada captain refuses to give up
Defending champions Canada’s chances in retaining the Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America FANCA Muslim Football tournament title is looking slim after they played to a 2-2 draw against Australia at Churchill Park in Lautoka yesterday.
This came after they lost their first match on Thursday night to Fiji by 2-0.
The Aussies dominated the first half and were denied a penalty early in the game. But in the 14th minute Shamin Shakeel scored as Australia took a 1-0 lead. This was extended in the 29th minute through a Abdirahman Ahmed drive.
However, Canada managed to come back in the second half scoring two goals to escape with a draw.
Canada Muslim football team captain Raizal Ganief said the match was tough but however they managed to fight their way back in the second half.
“We got two early goals against us but we had a team talk during halftime and everyone was told to stay positive. And we fought our way back into the game,” he said. Being the defending champions and coming into this tournament was quite tough however Ganief says, they are positive of making a comeback.
“We had some clear cut chances in the second half and it was quite frustrating that we could not score. We are still not out of the tournament and we will keep on fighting,” he added.
Canada Muslim Football president Mohammed Shameem said many players that featured in the 2016 winning side had missed out on this trip.
“Many of our stars are missing due to various reasons however we still played to do our best,” he said.
Australia’s team manager Aiyaz Begg said that despite being down to only 10-men in the early minutes of first half, they still managed to hold on.
Today Canada face New Zealand at 11.30am followed by Fiji v Australia at 12.45pm.