PAKISTAN IN ASIAN GAMES: HOCKEY

 

P.C. PAKISTAN HOCKEY FEDRATION

Pakistan is facing difficult period in its national game i.e., Hockey. In recent times Pakistani players had a chance to showcase their performance in men’s Asian games 2023Pakistan started of their campaign in quite a style.

Pakistan played its first match in China against Singapore on 24 of September 2023 and won quite comprehensively by the margin of 11-0. In the second match against Bangladesh Pakistan was able to defeat by the score of 5-2.

In the third match against Uzbekistan Pakistan launched attached and won by the greatest margin ever by Pakistan. Score against Uzbekistan was 18-2.

After quite delicate performances Pakistan seemed to be completely out of form in the match against India. Fans were utterly disappointed by watching such a one-sided game as India won by the margin of 10-2.

After disenchanting performance Pakistan needed to win against Japan and keep hope to directly qualify for Olympics alive. But destiny was of another point of view as Pakistan fought Hard against Japan but could not clinch a victory. Pakistan was able to score 2 goals and Japan scored 3 goals.

P.C. FREE PRESS JOURNAL

After the loss against Japan Pakistan was clearly out of race of medal in this event but the match against Malaysia for 5-6 place was of much importance as it would decide whether Pakistan would qualify for Olympic qualifier or not. In the final match of this event Pakistan had a crumbled start but managed to get ahead of opponent very soon. Final score of the match was 5-2.

Pakistan can take many positives from this event as the team is very young and can learn a lot and has a potential to beat big team. But the pro here is also a con as this is very young team and as a very young team except Umar Bhutta (Captain of Pakistan Hockey team) no one has much capability to deal with pressure situations as situation was created against India and Japan.

Pakistan Hockey Federation need to work a lot on their Players groom them, allow them and arrange matches against international teams so that players can be groomed and will feel much easy while playing in big events and also will be able to handle pressure in more mature manner.

It should not be ignored that this Pakistan hockey team is very young and do not have much international exposure as other had so fans should not bash and should keep supporting the team and ask relevant authorities to work on these players so that these boys can once again bring pride back and make PAKISTAN PROUD!