Maldives will take part in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) championship which is scheduled to kickoff September. Also in March next year, Maldives will host the biggest tournament in their history, the AFC Challenge Cup.
FAM has kept their faith in Hungarian Istvan Urbanyi, and kept him in the hot seat for the two tournaments. Under Urbanyi, Maldives national team has undergone major changes. The old guard has been replaced with young blood. A move which has earned him much deserved praise. In addition Urbanyi has implemented a fluent passing game to the national side recently.
“Yes Urbanyi will be the coach of the Maldives national team till the end of Challenge cup next year” said FAM’s Director of National teams, Ali Suzain “we have trust in him. It’s not an easy task but we will keep faith in him”
Urbanyi is in his second stint with the national side. He was first appointed as the national team coach in 2009. In his first year in charge he led the team to the SAFF Cup final which was held in Bangladesh. Maldives marched to the final with an unbeaten run, but surrendered their title after a heartbreaking defeat to India in the final.
Urbanyi was appointed once again in 2011 after FAM sacked his successor Diego Cruciani and led the team to SAFF cup. However luck was against Maldives as they lost out to eventual winners India in the semi finals.
In last year’s Challenge cup he brought a much needed transition to the national side. Urbanyi included young faces to the national side. Even though Maldives was knocked out of the group stages, Urbanyi was credited with the decent performances of the national side.
Later in the Nehru Cup in India, Urbanyi added new faces in the squad once again. In the tournament the national side recorded a historic first win against Syria and also beat Nepal. Maldives was applauded for their performance in the Nehru Cup.
Urbanyi has always a keen eye on developing youth talents. Even though he received some criticism for replacing the veterans, he was never afraid to give the young players a run out. In December last year he proved the doubters wrong as the Maldives U23 national side won the Mahindra Rajapakse trophy in Sri Lanka. Many of the players in the U23 side were already in the senior side.
The U23 side’s phenomenal success was aptly appreciated by the local supporters, including Maldives President Mohamed Waheed. Urbanyi’s hard work in bringing success to the national side was recognized by FAM, as he received an award of appreciation along with the team in this year’s FAM awards.
However rather than basking in glory, Urbanyi passed his praised to the young players who won the tournament.
“This is a huge success,” said Urbanyi after the tournament. “This group of players is not yet the new golden generation. But they have the potential. A lot of work has to be done. They are now champions. But this is just the beginning. Now people will expect them to deliver.”
In the recent friendlies against Pakistan, the national side displayed a very fluent passing game, which was praised by the local fans. Urbanyi always expressed his desire to implement a passing game to the national side, but it had never truly materialized earlier. In the first match against Pakistan, Maldives completed an astonishing 550 passes with an accuracy rate of 88 percent.
“This is the type of game that I always wanted to play,” said the former Hungarian international after the second game against Pakistan in February.”Players needed time to adapt to the style I wanted. In the process they will make mistakes. But I hope in the future we can succeed by adopting this style.”
Suzain noted that national side’s performance against Pakistan proves that Urbanyi is trying to bring a positive change to the national side.
“If you see the recent performances [against Pakistan] it proves that the coach is trying to bring a positive change to the game. That’s what we want to see. I feel that under Urbanyi we are currently on the right track,” Suzain said.
The new style was not only praised by the supporters and media, but some senior players were also delighted with Urbanyi’s game plan.
“Thanks a lot coach. You did a great job to change it,” National teams goalkeeper and vice Captain Imran Mohamed posted on his face book after the second match against Pakistan.
“The very first day I told that you are the one who can take us here. For 13 years I was staying at the [national sides] goal but I didn't see the beautiful football that I saw in these two matches.
Haveeru Online
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