Jordan shock fancied Romania

Jordan shock fancied Romania
B David

Margao, January 11: In a match bereft of speed and skill, a cheeky injury-time goal by Faisal Ibrahim Suleiman fashioned Jordan’s shock victory over fancied Romania in the Group III league encounter of the Sahara Cup Millennium football tournament at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.

The match billed as a thriller between the two best teams in the group, with Cameroon pulling out in the last minute, turned out to be a scrappy affair with Romania coming from a winter holiday failing to cope with the heat.

Jordan, who defended for better part of the match, increased the tempo with a couple of raids on the left flank in the dying minutes, desperately trying to force the issue.

Seconds into injury time, Jordan’s central midfielder Rafat Ali Jaber, moved down on the left flank before sending a diagonal pass to Sufian A Daoud into the goalmouth. But Romania’s Costin Sergiu tackled him successfully but his weak clearance went to Jordan’s Sheikh Qasem who put Faisal Suleiman in possession. Suleiman, the right wing back, who rushed in from the right took a short burst before sending a stinger from a narrow angle to find the left corner of the net. Romanian custodian Anghel Eugen was out of position and could not anticipate the shot.

Suleiman ran across to the sidelines and kissed his coach even as Jordan players celebrated the goal.

Earlier, Romania held possession of the ball and were superior in midfield with Sasu Marius and Gheara Decebal holding the game. But their strikers Zlati Aurelian and Luca Ioan lacked the punch in attack to pierce the Jordan defence manned well by Adnan Al Shuaibat, Hiatham H Semrin and Faisal Suleiman.

Romania who were clearly a superior side missed chances in the first session and came close to foisting the lead in the 27th minute. Lucaoan from the right flank found Sasu Marius in the goalmouth through a long pass and lobbed the ball to Gheara Decebal, who headed into the left corner of the net. But an alert Ahmad Al Khazaleh under the Jordan bar dived full length to his right and palmed away to make a fantastic save which was cleared to safety by a defender.Jordan’s coach Ricardo Carugati was thrilled with the victory. ‘‘Romania is an excellent team with European style of play and it’s not easy to play such a professional team with our amateur outfit. So I am very happy and fully satisfied with our performance. Our boys played tactically as Romanians are very fast in attack.’’

He attributed the missed chances to lack of speed. ‘‘Our boys got into the positions well but lacked the speed,’’ he said.

A crestfallen Romanian coach Vlad Remus said the team failed to get into the groove for lack of acclimatisation. The team which landed here only on Wednesday had come straight out of holidays. ‘‘We had no time for practice and its off season for us,’’ he said. He expressed confidence that the team will regroup to beat Hong Kong and make it to the quarter-finals.

In the next match in this group, Romania takes on Hong Kong on Sunday.