Affan shines in the comity of hockey greats

Diminutive but definitive Affan Yusuf of Dabang Mumbai is cynosure of all eyes in the ongoing fifth edition of Hockey India League.

Among the comity of world’s best who are here, the Bhopal lad, son of a former international hockey player, has fast emerged as the leading light of the HIL.

His solo runs, positioning for poaching goals, hawkish like picks out of half chances have given his new Franchise Dabang Mumbai – he played for Jaipee Punjab Warriors for the first three HIL years – a new lease of life.

As if his twin strikes in two successive minutes, a feat which made his former team and now defending Champions JPW look like a minnow last week, he came out even more strongly yesterday to present his team another clean win.

First he picked up a diagonal pass inside D despite being marked by Junior World Cup goldie and captain Harjeet Singh and then dragged the ball in front in a spilit second to carpet-sweep the ball past goalie, who was intent on covering the right narrow angle whereas spotted the space to his right.

This stunner gave the struggling Mumbai a shot in the arm against run of play.

Affan, who hardly takes the eyes away from ball, known for his crouching style, the Bhopal patent, has got increasingly the knack of being where his presence count.

The twin strikes against Delhi the other day stands out for this.

First goal was struck from forehand sweep from the right side of the circle. Whereas he was spot on when a rebound reached left in first half’s lone penalty corner his team has got.

Sensing a half chance, he took a stride along the flight direction before whacking the ball on its half-flight. In such sudden reverse waist-height shot, no goalie on earth can spot the flight and block.
Exactly, the same happened in Mahindra Stadium.

For once nobody complains why was he given three awards together at the end of the match: Thrilling Goal (Rs.50k), Young Achiever (25k) and Man of the Match (Rs.50k).

Dabang Mumbai, like all other teams in the HIL, has some outstanding and proven global asset. Florian Fuchs, the last edition’s top scorer, Kieran Govers come to our mind.

German star Florian Fuchs too is making his presence felt with nippy runs and nice goal shots for the Affan’s team. He is also among the individual award winners.

Still, Affan stands out with his sterling show till now.

This in itself is a feat for the lad who missed out Rio Olympics.

Affan lights up the HIL, and is expected to places from now.