South African coach to train Pakistan goalkeepers from today

KARACHI: The PHF has appointed a foreign goalkeeping coach to train both male and female goalkeepers of the country.

Erasmus Pieterse is a former South African player and is a certified coach, PHF competent authorities told ‘The News’ on Sunday.The training camp has been organised in Karachi at Abdul Sattar Hockey Stadium.

According to PHF sources, the South African coach landed in Pakistan on Sunday morning and started training a bunch of goalkeepers which was last week selected by PHF from the domestic teams.

Erasmus played for South Africa from 2007-2017. In his 135-match international career, he featured in two Olympics and two World Cups. Pakistan has been facing dearth of skillful goalkeepers for the last couple of years. PHF took several steps to improve the performance of goalkeepers at the international level but the desired result could not be achieved.

The performance of goalkeepers in the recent three-nation tournament in Oman came as a shock to everyone. Pakistan lost against Japan in the final 3-2. Earlier, the minnows Oman were able to draw a match against Pakistan 4-4 after conceding three-goal lead.

Pakistan are to play Commonwealth Games in April in Australia, Champions Trophy in Holland in June, Asian Games in Indonesia in October and World Cup in December in India. “We had no option but to train our goalkeepers under the guidance of a specialised foreign goalkeeping coach. Erasmus is considered an expert coach in goalkeeping,” a source in PHF said.

Imran Butt and Amjad Ali, who were part of the Oman tournament squad, and junior goalkeepers are part of this two-week training programme. The sources said that introductory meeting between the participants of the training camp and the South African coach was held on Sunday. The training will start from Monday (today) morning.

Following are the goalkeepers who will get trained at the camp. Male: Waqar Younis , Adil Rao, Awais Rashid, Maseeh, Aun Ali, Hafiz Al Umair, Waleed Akhtar, Yasir Khan, Ali Raza, Muneeb-ur-Rehman, Roman Khan, Ali Haider, Akmal Hussain, Arsal Eyjaz and Usman Malik. Female: Rushna Khan, Anmol Arshad, Tahira Islam, Nida Majeed, Syeda Sadia and Sitara.