Pakistan beat world’s best teams during Europe tour: Junaid

KARACHI: Pakistan hockey team manager Olympian Khawaja Junaid has said that Green-shirts performed well on the European tour against the best teams of the world.

“It should be kept in mind that seven of our players made their debut during this tour and seven players had played less than ten international matches before the tour,” he said while talking to ‘The News’ on Friday after returning home from the Eurpeoan tour.

He said that the shortcomings found during the Eurpeoan tour would be addressed before the Asia Cup.

Pakistan played five test matches during the Eurpeoan tour. Agaisnt the Netherlands, they played two matches, winning one and losing the other. They lost the only match against Belgium. Against Spain, too, they played two matches, winning the first and losing the second.

“This was a great tour for all the players. With this, our isolation in international hockey came to an end. We saw the results of the long training camps that had been organised at home. The confidence of the players has been boosted after defeating the Netherlands and Spain and playing against world champions Belgium,” he said.

Junaid rejected the impression that the teams Pakistan played against did not include the best players of the host nations, saying: “These were the national teams of the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. The coaches of these teams were those who supervise their senior teams. There might have been some new players but it does not mean that they were weak and low-grade teams. How come the Netherlands and Spain bounced back against us after facing defeats in the first matches if they were not their best sides.”

When his attention was drawn to the fact that only Rizwan and Mubashir performed well and forwards and goalkeepers failed to impress, he said Pakistan team comprised more than 14 young and new players who had no experience of advanced hockey. “Those who had experience had not played international hockey for a long time. They had played only domestic matches. In such a situation, playing against world champions Belgium, and world number three Netherlands and world number nine Spain was not an easy task,” said Junaid.

“Winning two matches against them on their soil is an achievement. We can hope that the same team after playing 40 to 50 international matches will be able to defeat any world class team in near future,” he added.

While he admitted that the forwards did not score many goals, he claimed that they did launch attacks against world class teams which resulted in Pakistan getting penalty corners.

He said the forwards needed to improve the goal scoring ratio. He said that forward Ijaz’s performance was satisfactory.

He said that both goalkeepers had just graduated from the junior team, and still they managed to save goals. “Of course there is need to make them more solid in defence before the Asia Cup,” he said.

He said that before the departure to Jakarta, Pakistan would have 17 sessions of training (the camp starts from May 9 in Lahore). He further said that the Green-shirts would have five training sessions after reaching Indonesia on May 20.

“In these 22 sessions, the management will work on the players’ shortcomings so they don’t repeat the mistakes in Asia Cup,” he added.

He admitted that Pakistan’s group in Asia cup was tough in the presence of India and Japan. “We will have to work extremely hard to defeat these teams and thus qualify for the World Cup 2023, which is our prime target,” he said.