KARACHI: Pakistan hockey team is to fly to India on November 23 to participate in the World Cup, which is scheduled to begin from November 28 in Bhubaneswar.
The Green-shirts are busy in the final phase of their training camp at Lahore. Olympian Hasan Sardar, the manager of the team, told ‘The News’ on Sunday that the players were ready to face any team. “No doubt, our pool is tough as we have to face Germany, Malaysia and Holland. We will be fully vigilant in all three matches to reach the next round,” he said.
“The training camp of the boys is in the final stage. The coaches are addressing the players’ shortcomings which were identified in the last two events,” he added. “We will adopt different strategy for every match. Germany and Malaysia are different. We have played against Malaysia regularly. Our last two matches were against them. But we haven’t played against Germany for a long time. Thus, a different game plan will be needed against each team,” the former centre forward said.
“The performance of our players has been erratic. Sometimes they do very well, but not always. In the Commonwealth Games and Champions Trophy, their performance improved. They conceded defeats but in some matches they defeated strong teams, which shows they are capable of defeating any team if they play well and give their 100 percent,” said the manager.
He said the coaches were trying to reduce the missing of goal-scoring chances, and improve execution and defense of penalty corners and the fitness of the players. “Besides, there are some weaknesses in deep defence, which are being addressed,” Sardar said.
Pakistan will play two practice matches, against France on November 25, and Ireland on 28.Their first pool match is against Germany on December 1. They will face Malaysia on December 5 and Holland on 9.
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