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WEEKLY
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| Pakistan win U18 Asia Cup, qualify for Youth Olympics |
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Monday, November 23, 2009
From Ghalib Bajwa
YANGON, Myanmar: Pakistan annexed the Under-18 Asia Cup Hockey title after they defeated Malaysia 4-3 in a tense final here on Sunday.
By virtue of this victory, Pakistan also qualified for the Youth Olympics Hockey Tournament to be held in Singapore next year.
Malaysia’s Sultan Azlan Shah was the chief guest of the final and later distributed prizes among the prominent performers of the event.
Pakistan center-half Muhammad Tauseeq was adjudged as Best Player of the Tournament. However, Man of the Final award went to Malaysia’s Muhammad Sabri. The awards of best goalie and top scorer went to Malaysia’s Mohd Hazrul Fiaz and Korea’s Ji Hun respectively.
In the first half, both the teams scuffled many a times and forced umpires to call both captains and showed them green cards.
After taking strict action, the umpires managed to control the game but Shazril Irwan of Malaysia (in 42nd minute) and Pakistan’s Muhammad Adnan (50th minute) were sent out through yellow cards.
Pakistan began the action in aggressive style and produced two goal-scoring chances but to no avail and Malaysia en-cashed on the situation and scored their first goal on a penalty corner in 6th minute through Muhammad Sabri.
Pakistan’s young team regained their rhythm in style and produced two back-to-back goals within two minutes.
In-form Tauseeq converted Pakistan’s first penalty corner into a goal in 24th minute and in the very next minute, center-forward Muhammad Arsalan gave Pakistan the lead with a whirlwind shot.
In the 32nd minute, vice captain Rana Umair struck a beautiful field goal after a combined move from skipper Kashif and right-half Rizwan.
The Malaysians raised the level of their game in second half and got a pair of penalty corners in the 36th and 37th minutes.
Pakistan’s right-in Javed Ali put Pakistan into a rather strong position with a beautiful field goal in the 43rd minute.
Seeing the match and the tournament slipping from their hands, Malaysia launched a string of attacks in the last 15 minutes but Pakistan defence line thwarted their plans with rock-like stoppages.
However, the Malaysians managed to reduce the margin of their defeat with two goals in the last 15 minutes.
Muhammad Sabri netted a penalty corner in 57th minute while Muhammad Firhan scored his team’s third and last goal in 66th minute.
Before the final, Japan suffered a 4-2 thrashing at the hands of strong Korea in a classification match for 3rd/4th position.
The fifth position went to India, who trounced Singapore 4-1 while Sri Lanka grabbed 7th spot after winning their match against Chinese Taipie and hosts Myanmar grabbed the 9th and last position in the 12-day event.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
