‘ACT performance shows Pakistan can improve’

KARACHI: The results of Asian Hockey Championship 2021 clearly showed that Pakistan hockey team is passing through its toughest period, said experts while talking to ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

Pakistan played six matches in the Championship and won only one — against the weakest team of the event, Bangladesh. They drew two matches and lost three matches.

Former captain Olympian Kamran Ashraf said that one good sign was that Pakistan team consisted of mainly young players who had not played much international hockey for last two years. “But they did not come under pressure despite conceding goals against Korea, Japan and India who are considered strong teams,” he added.

“The Greenshirts came back time and again after conceding goals and during this period the best thing was that our forwards scored field goals. We had been dependent on short corners,” said Kamran, a great centerforward of his time.

Kamran said that PHF should continue playing the young players so that their game could improve further.

He further said that poor marking of defenders and goalkeeping cost Pakistan in a few matches. “Otherwise Pakistan team was capable of turning the tables in all matches,” he said.

Kamran said that it was new head coach Siegfried Aikman’s first assignment. “He will take some time to build the young team. Pakistan’s performance is not disappointing as the juniors’ was in the recent Wrold Cup in India,” he said.

Qamar Zia, a former Olympian, said that a number of weaknesses emerged during the matches of Asian championship. “We failed in all departments — defense, goalkeeping, penatly corners. We even failed to stop the ball on PCs. Forwards need to improve their skills to be able to penetrate the rival team’s half,” he said.

“But one positive thing was that Greenshirts played well against Korea, Japan and India, whose ranking was much better,” Qamar added.

He said that PHF focused on the fitness of the players and regularly organised camps but during the last quaters of the game Pakistani players looked tired. “So what was the benefit of the drills of fitness camps,” he said.

“When the ball stopper fails to stop the ball on D line, then what will the drag flicker do! There was no coordination among the players as far as the short passes and long passes are concerned,” he said.

He said that if Pakistan had beaten India for the third postion it would have been great for their confidence but unfortunately it did not happen.