Pakistan Football team created history in October as they qualified for the second round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time in their history.
The Men in Green defeated a strong Cambodian side, drawing the first-leg in Cambodia before winning the second by 1-0 in front of a roaring crowd in Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad.
While at that moment football was meant to be celebrated throughout Pakistan, as usual politics got the limelight as the customary press conferences by the teams at the end of the match were overshadowed by political speeches, thanks to the ‘Chief Guest’ of the match, the caretaker minster of Information and Broadcasting, Murtaza Solangi, hogging the limelight.
The presser, which was led by Murtaza Solangi, could have had repercussions for Pakistan Football but fortunately for the national team, FIFA decided not to take action.
Murtaza Solangi’s ‘powershow’, if you can call it that, led to the cancelation of the presser of the Cambodian manager, who could not share his thoughts with the football fans in the country and back home.
Cambodian manager, Felix Dalmas, who is an Argentinian coach, recently sat down with us as he shed light on exactly what played out in Islamabad on 17 October, 2023.
Question: Thank you, Coach Felix, for taking the time to speak with us. We understand that you might be tired, especially coming directly from the game against Qatar, which was indeed a fantastic match.
Felix: Thank you! Yes, it was a tough match, and we had some players dealing with injuries. Despite the challenges, we just gave our best.
Question: Let’s start with the recent FIFA World Cup qualifiers match in Islamabad. What was the plan in the match and what do you think went wrong for Cambodia as you lost 1-0?
Felix: So, strategically speaking any reason I give for the loss will sound like an excuse but in my opinion there were a number of factors which led to the loss. It was a tough day at work as Pakistan was playing with a very low block and despite us trying to play our natural game, it was very difficult to breakdown that low block, as it is usually for any team in the world.
Despite some good play by us we were unable to score the goal, which brought on more pressure to the team, which has an impact on the mental state of the players.
And then as time goes on, the pressure is on the team that’s trying trying to win, not the team that’s not trying to lose. Big difference, big difference.
At the end of the day, Pakistan took the advantage and won the game, which proved to be a learning curve for us personally. So to be honest with you, when I lose, I try to learn.
Secondly, the playing field was not ideal. This isn’t the fault of Pakistan to be honest, but it is what it is. The field was not up to the standard.
Felix also shed light on Pakistan’s solid performance in the match. He stated that Pakistan’s physicality posed a major challenge for his team and it proved more difficult to break down their low block as time went on. He further elaborated that Pakistan’s ability to deal with the long ball, given their much superior physicality made it easier for the Men in Green to defend.
He further stated that he witnessed major improvement in the Pakistani side since their match at the same stage in FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
“Huge difference. So that’s the first point, right? And then what works for you, what doesn’t work for you, right? What’s Pakistan’s advantage? Population. They have a huge population and diaspora players available.
“So more than half of the team that we played against in this game, more than half of it, I mean, they never played in Pakistan. I think I spent more time in Pakistan than they did. I have watched all their games while playing in Europe, and they were good.
“Second point. do you need to have a national league for the short term? Not really. You just have to catch all the players that are playing outside. I think you have a bigger population than Uruguay, outside of Pakistan.
“But is it good to have a national league? That’s the ideal of course. And then the sense of belonging. If you have players that are Pakistani or whatever culture, right? If people love football, yes. But if not, then it’s very difficult to grow that. It doesn’t happen organically. There has to be a lot of investment. There has to be a movement to make that happen. And it has to be a lot of commitment from many different parties. So, as I said, a lot of countries have a different status.”
It’s great if you have a league to compete. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that when you have a league, it’s going to be good. Because you might have a league and you’re still going to use maybe 90% that are going to play outside from the diaspora.
Furthermore, Felix appreciated the reception of the Cambodian team in Pakistan. He said that he knows exactly how hard it is to get things perfect and Pakistan tried to do that to their maximum potential. He said that obviously it wasn’t perfect but appreciated the effort put in to make them comfortable.
You cannot compare the facilities to let’s say Qatar, because the comparison does not make sense. Similarly, we do our best, but we know that our best is not exactly comparable to what Qatar can offer.
We accepted what they had to offer and we have no complaints regarding the management side of things at all.
Question: Now, about the post-match press conference, we noticed it didn’t take place in Islamabad. Could you shed light on the reasons behind it?
Felix: So, the game finished and as always, as protocol goes, he match commissioner calls me for the presser, and I go. So, we went with the press from Cambodia.
I waited there and there was, I don’t know who was, there was somebody else giving a press conference. I waited outside for 20 minutes but the ongoing press conference did not finish. I don’t know if that was professional, so I decided that I have done my duty and I cannot stay any longer.
While the PFF management did request me wait for a little longer, but I couldn’t wait for more than 25 minutes. I told the match commissioner that I am ready to give the press conference but the circumstances did not allow me to do so. So he allowed me to leave without giving the presser.
Media manager had expected that FIFA and AFC might act on this, but nothing has happened. So, I don’t know what happened. If it was miscommunication, whatever it was, I wasn’t going wait there for an hour. And we had to leave.
He concluded the interview by revealing his aspirations for his Cambodian Football team. He said that his goal is simple, to improve Cambodian football day-by-day. He further stated that he was deeply disappointed with the result in Islamabad, but that doesn’t mean they have lost the progress they have made over the past four years.
“If you are improving game by game then you keep on carrying like that for another year, but if you are not then maybe it’s time to rethink things,” he concluded.
