 Hamid Karimi holding the SAFF Title. | |||||||
| Event | 2013 SAFF Championship | ||||||
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| Date | 11 September 2013 | ||||||
| Venue | Dasarath Rangasala,Kathmandu | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Mansur Faqiryar (Afghanistan) | ||||||
| Referee | Tayeb Hasan Shamsuzzaman (Bangladesh) | ||||||
| Attendance | 6,500+ | ||||||
←2011 2015 → | |||||||
The2013 SAFF Championship Final was the final match of the2013 SAFF Championship which took place inNepal on 11 September 2013, and was officiated byTayeb Hasan Shamsuzzaman ofBangladesh. It was the 10th installment of the tournament since its inception in 1993.[1]
This was the first time in theSAFF Championship that the finalists were the same in two consecutive finals, as in the2011 SAFF ChampionshipIndia had thrashedAfghanistan 4–0 inIndia.[citation needed] However, in this final it was Afghanistan who thrashed India 2–0, with goals coming fromMustafa Azadzoy andSandjar Ahmadi in the 9th and 62nd minute respectively. This was Afghanistan's first SAFF Championship win.[2]
India entered the 2013 SAFF Championship as the reigning champion after defeating Afghanistan in the2011 SAFF Championship. Afghanistan's best record previous was runners-up in the 2011 SAFF Championship.[3]
To the final, India struggled through and scraped by the group stage through head-to-edge edging outPakistan from an own-goal bySamar Ishaq in a 1–0 win to the Indians. Later in the semi-finals, againstMaldives, it took India until the 86th minute whenArnab Mondal opened the scoring to leave it a 1–0 win to proceed to the final.[citation needed]
Afghanistan, on the other hand, breezed by bothSri Lanka andBhutan in the group stage with comfortable wins and a 0–0 stalemate with Maldives. To proceed to the final, Afghanistan won convincingly in a 1–0 win against the hostsNepal with the lone goal coming fromSandjar Ahmadi in the 11th minute.[citation needed]
India entered the tournament as favorites to win but as matches progressed, many thought otherwise. Afghanistan entered the final as clear favorites to win, before the match, due to their journey and having their highest FIFA ranking, at the time, of 139. India, however, barely scraped by to the final and had a FIFA ranking of 145.[citation needed]
| Afghanistan | Round | India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opponent | Result | Group stage | Opponent | Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Bhutan | 3–0 | Match 1 |  Pakistan | 1–0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Sri Lanka | 3–1 | Match 2 |  Bangladesh | 1–1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Maldives | 0–0 | Match 3 |  Nepal | 1–2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source:RSSSF | Final Standings |
Source:RSSSF | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opponent | Result | Knockout stage | Opponent | Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nepal | 1–0 | Semi-finals | Maldives | 1–0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
During the tournament, Afghanistan had the most diverse squad. While most other nations had almost all players playing for their domestic league, Afghanistan had five players playing outside of Asia with four in Europe and the rest in either India'sI-League or its domestic league theAfghan Premier League. The average age of theLions of Khorasan was 26 years of age with goalkeeperHamidullah Yousafzai the oldest at 31 and youngest beingSidiq Walizada at 21.
India had all its players playing in its domesticI-League with four players beingfree agents. The average age of theBlue Tigers was 26 years of age, as well, with goalkeeperSandip Nandy the oldest at 38 andSandesh Jhingan the youngest at 20.
Tayeb Shamsuzzaman of theBangladesh was appointed the referee of the final and wasassisted by Pakistani Moaid Al Sayeg and Issa Mahmoud Ahmad Al Amawi of Jordan. The fourth official was Adham Makhadmeh, also from Jordan.
Shamsuzzaman was listed as a FIFA referee in 1999. Since then, he had experience as a referee in theWorld Cup Qualifiers (AFC),AFC Cup,AFC Champions League,WAFF Championship andAFF Suzuki Cup.
Prior to the final, he refereed for five other games in the2013 SAFF Championship. He was referee in Afghanistan-Bhutan and Bhutan-Maldives matches in Group A before moving to the Group B match India-Nepal. Then finishing the group stage by being the referee for Afghanistan-Maldives and the semi-final of Maldives-India.
In the games that Shamsuzzaman was the referee, he showed no more than two yellow cards in every game with that being Bhutan-Maldives and Afghanistan-Maldives. He gave the red card in thegroup-stage match betweenBhutan national football team andMaldives national football team and giving the Bhutan goalkeeper Leki Dukpa a red card for trippingAli Ashfaq just outside the penalty box after rushing to a one-on-one.
Afghanistan  | 2–0 |  India |
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Azadzoy 9'Ahmadi 62' | Report |
          Afghanistan |     India |
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| Man of the Match: Mansur Faqiryar (Afghanistan) Assistant referees: | Match rules
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