Muharraq had ‘secret’ weapon in AFC Cup victory, says coach

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

An inspirational video with messages from family members was one of the keys to boosting Muharraq’s players’ mindset ahead of their AFC Cup title-winning match against FC Nasaf Qarshi of Uzbekistan on Friday.

This was revealed by Muharraq head coach Isa Sadoon, who described the video as a “secret” that was only shown to the players hours prior to the final.

“We were in an excellent mental condition going into the match—one of our secrets was that we showed the players a video before coming to the stadium with messages from their families,” Sadoon was quoted as saying on theafc.com. “I would like to thank the media centre and the administrative staff that helped put it together.

“It had an important impact on the players going into the match. I would like to thank the families and everyone who helped us get this victory.” Sadoon hailed the Kingdom’s wise leadership and all of the club’s fans for their unwavering support in their tournament campaign.

They secured their second AFC Cup crown with their 3-0 result—the first coming more than a decade ago in 2008. “I would like to congratulate the Kingdom of Bahrain from the King to the club president to the fans and all the Bahraini people,” he said. “It’s an achievement for all of Bahraini and for us to win two continental titles.”

Sadoon highlighted that his team was fully ready for the contest and that their tactics worked brilliantly. “It was a difficult match, we focused on nullifying their strengths,” he explained. “In preparation for the match, we knew they often attack from the left where they have their best players; number 34 [Nasrullaev] and 77 [Oybek Bozorov].

“We divided the match into periods, the plan was that if we were leading until the 70th minute, we would bring on Ahmed Al Hayki or Jameel. I know Jameel is good at transitions and has a pace.

“We found spaces as they pushed forward and that helped him run behind and get his goal. Today the substitutions worked well, they don’t always do, but today they did.” Sadoon added that the AFC Cup title was one of their key targets this season and they were eyeing the victory ever since the start of the competition.

"Since we travelled to Jordan for the group stage, we had one objective on our minds which was to win the title,” he said. “I would like to thank the players who played an incredible tactical match against a team of continental pedigree, a team that usually plays in the AFC Champions League.”