Karachi United Women’s at the 2024 National Women’s Football Championship

Team talk during the water break interval against Hazara Quetta WFC with the scores level at 2-2.

The Karachi United women’s team was a part of the 2024 National Women’s Football Championship (NWFC), which took place from July to August 2024. An 11-a-side competition, this was divided into two legs; the first taking place in Karachi and the second (final) leg in Islamabad with the matches from the semi-finals taking place at the Jinnah Stadium.

Squad List

The squad list was as follows –

GK:

Fatima Naz (1), Ummul Baneen (16)

DF:

Khadija Wali (2), Sahiba Baloch (4) ©, Bakhtawar A. Ghaffar (12), Muqaddas Iqbal (14), Javeria Ejaz (18), Khaula Hoth (19)

MF:

Aqsa M. Dawood (5), Mahnoor Burney (6), Marsha Malik (8), Zoya Zeeshan (13), Areeba Ibrahim (20)

FW:

Eschal Waqas (3), Mariam Zehri (7), Sara Lasi (9), Maheen Jawaid (10), Ammarah Khan (15), Ammarah Baloch (17), Ayesha Kamran (21)

Warming up before the group stage match in Islamabad.

Group Stages

KU women were drawn in the same group as MUK FC and Young Muslim. They finished top of the group with two wins out of two scoring 14 goals and conceding once. Aqsa, Eschal, and Sara finished with 3 goals each, Mariam with 2 goals, and Sahiba, Marsha, and Ammarah Baloch with 1 goal. With this, the team qualified for the Islamabad leg.

In the Islamabad leg, KU women were drawn with Hazara Quetta WFC (Quetta), Highlanders WFC (Islamabad), and JAFA (Karachi). In the first match between HQWFC, KU women won 4-0 courtesy of hat-trick from Sara and an own goal. Highlanders WFC proved to be a tricky contest as the team edged to a 2-0 victory with a last-minute winner from Ammarah Khan after Sara opened the scoring. In the final group stage match against JAFA, KU women prevailed by scoring 6 goals with Marsha scoring 3 goals, Eschal 2 goals, and Ayesha with 1 goal. With 3 wins out of 3, KU women qualified for the semi-finals and remained undefeated in the group stages.

Sara Lasi after scoring the opening goal in the first match.

Knockout Stage

In the semi-final, KU women were up against Legacy WFC, led by former Pakistan women’s national team captain Malika-e-Noor. Despite putting in a good performance, lapses in judgement and individual errors resulted in the team losing 0-6. With the first loss of the tournament in the semi-final stage, KU women then had to settle for the 3rd place playoff against Hazara Quetta WFC. A repeat of the group stage match, but with the bronze medal on the line, both teams came out battling. KU women ended the nail-biting match with a score line of 3-2 after a hat-trick by Marsha despite being a player down after Eschal was sent off early in the 2nd half.

Team huddle during the semi-final match against Legacy WFC.

Statistics

The team finished with 6 wins and 1 defeat. A total of 29 goals were scored and 9 goals conceded throughout the tournament. Goalkeeper Fatima Naz kept 4 clean sheets. A total of 9 players got on the score sheet for KU.
The top scorers of the team were as follows –
1. Marsha Malik – 7 goals
2. Sara Lasi – 7 goals
3. Eschal Waqas – 5 goals
4. Aqsa M. Dawood – 3 goals
5. Mariam Zehri – 2 goals
6. Sahiba Baloch – 1 goal
7. Ammarah Khan – 1 goal
8. Ammarah Baloch – 1 goal
9. Ayesha Kamran – 1 goal