Pakistan regain winning touch to beat Kiwis 2-0

Friday, 08 August 2008

From Abdul Mohi Shah

BEIJING, China: The Pakistan hockey team found the winning touch ahead of the start of the 29th Olympic Games competition, beating New Zealand 2-0 here at the Olympic Green Hockey Stadium on Thursday morning.

A brace of goals by penalty corner specialist Imran Warsi in the first half settled the matter in a practice match, that saw Pakistan playing with more confidence and acumen than they did on Wednesday against South Korea.

Imran first flicked the ball into the net in the the 12th minute and then followed it up with another goal 11 minutes later with almost the same technique, to give Pakistan a morale boosting win ahead of their first Pool B match against Great Britain on August 11.

Pakistan were without their centre-half Muhammad Saqlain and forward Waqas Sharif as they were nursing injuries they received in the match against Korea.

Following early exchanges, Pakistan broke into the New Zealand defence twice in the first ten minutes before earning a penalty corner in the 11th minute. Imran dragged flicked the ball into the net and Pakistan started playing with more aggression and coordination.

Pakistan could have added some more goals through field efforts had Rehan Butt and Adnan Maqsood succeeded in flicking the ball home on two separate occasions.

However, Warsi made it quite comfortable for the greenshirts when he scored his second goal in the 23rd minute to give Pakistan a comfortable two goals lead. There was no addition to the score in the second half that saw the New Zealand team playing with more aggression. The lack of finishing power however kept the Kiwis score-sheet blank.

“It is not winning or losing that matters in these practice matches. What really matters is the players’ coordination in both offence and defence,” chief coach Zakauddin said at the end of the match.

He had all praise for the defence as well as the half line. “The right-half Mohammad Javed played really well and so did the captain Zeeshan Ashraf at the defence. All in all it was a much improved performance than the one we saw against Korea the other day,” Zaka said.

He said that against Korea, Pakistan played bad hockey for just ten minutes where it conceded three goals. “Here in the match against New Zealand, the boys played consistently throughout the 70 minutes play.”

In another practice match, Australia beat Germany 2-1 to send an early warning to the others. Australia is considered as a strong favourite to win the hockey title here for the second time in succession.

Source: http://www.fieldhockey.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5051&Itemid=1