Dubai: Fohood fought back from a two-goal deficit to secure a 7-6 sudden death penalty shoot-out win over the Shaikh Rashid Bin Ammar team and lift the Fifth Maktoum Bin Rashid Football Championship late on Sunday.
Down by two goals at the end of the first half, Fohood fought back to equalise with three minutes remaining and force the penalty shoot-out. It was then the turn of the two goalkeepers to take over. Mohammad Yousuf saved two kicks for the Shaikh Rashid team, but it was Mohammad Ali Ghuloom who proved to be the hero as he stopped three kicks and help Fohood to victory.
Shaikh Zayed Bin Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum was the chief guest and presented the trophies and individual honours to the players in the presence of Mohammad Al Marri and Humaid Al Ansari of Dubai Police Officers Club and sponsors’ representatives.
“We deserved to win this trophy as we were the better team. They scored early and that took us some time to get ourselves back into the game. But once we had got our rhythm back there was nothing that could have stopped us,” Fohood playmaker Hassan Ali Ebrahim told Gulf News.
“We believed in ourselves. All of us associated with this team have been friends for more then 20 years now. We are not just a team. We are a family. We should have won during normal time instead of the penalty shoot-out,” the former Al Ahli player added.
The Shaikh Rashid team set a blistering pace and this fetched them immediate results as Hamad Al Rawi opened the score in the third minute and Hussain Abdul Rahman latched on to a defensive mistake to make it 2-0.
Fohood regrouped well in the second half and Jassim Mahdi pulled one back in the first minute. They continued pressing but failed to get past a stubborn Shaikh Rashid defence till Mussallam Ahmad managed to squeeze an equaliser with only three minutes left.
Held under the patronage of Shaikh Mohammad Bin Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum with sponsorship from Inkas Vehicles LLC, the annual competition consisted of indoor rowing, cross fit, Mas-Wrestling, running races, bowling and the football tournament with a total prize fund of Dh1 million.
