Pakistan

By Muhammad Ali

LAHORE: Pakistan avenged their Athens Olympics defeat when they outplayed world champions Germany 3-1 in their opening match of the Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament at National Hockey Stadium here on Saturday.

Sohail Abbas, the most feared penalty corner exponent in the game, gave green shirts lead off a 33rd minute short corner. It was the 28-year-old world record holder’s 269th goal in 219 matches. Jan-Marco Montag scored the equaliser in the 40th minute through a penalty corner and the German forwards continually tested Pakistan goalkeeper Salman Akbar in search of the lead. Against the run of play, unmarked Rehan Butt scored in the 52nd minute off a fine pass from Abbas to put Pakistan ahead 2-1. Kashif Jawad sealed the fate of Germany in the 63rd minute when he flicked the ball over the head of German goalkeeper Ulrich Bulbolz and into the goal.

“Maybe we were a bit slow at the start but got there in the end,” said Pakistan’s Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans in his post match comments. “Our goalkeeper also played well in the match and saved the day for us with his vigilance. The win will increase the confidence of the team for the remaining matches”, he added. German coach and captain were of the view that it was sheer bad luck they missed good chances of scoring. “We will improve in next matches,” they said.

Earlier, penalty corner shooter Taeke Taekema scored two goals as defending champions the Netherlands earned a convincing 5-2 victory over New Zealand in the first match of the day. Favourites Holland missed some scoring opportunities against a shaky New Zealand until Taekma converted his team’s first penalty corner in the 26th minute. New Zealand equalised three minutes later through Bevan Hari before Ronald Brouwer’s neat deflection off experienced Teun de Nooijer’s pass gave the Dutchmen a 2-1 lead at halftime. The Netherlands unleashed three more goals before the final whistle in the second half through Rob Reckers (44th minute), Taekema (50th minute) and Karel Klaver (60th minute) to gain full points. New Zealand, who finished sixth at Athens, netted their second also through Hari.

“It is always good to start a tournament with a win,” said Dutch coach Terry Walsh. “It took time to settle down but I thought we played very well in the second half.” New Zealand coach Kevin Towns predicted his team had plenty of improvement to show in this tournament. “We were a bit rusty and we will improve as the tournament goes on,” Towns said.

In the second match of the day, Spain netted four goals in the second half to trounce India 4-0. Alex Fabregas opened the account for Spain in the 43rd minute on a Francisco Fabregas pass. Later, the Spanish team sounded the board thrice in five-minute span. Eduard Arbos made it 2-0 in the 60th minute while Santiago Freixa converted a 63rd minute penalty stroke. One minute later, Juan Escarre completed the Indian rout with a hard push from the right side which beat Indian goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan.

“The best thing was that we did now allow India to settle down and did not concede a single penalty corner,” said Spain’s Dutch coach Maurits Hendriks. “We played with a lot of passion and did not take Indians lightly,” he added. Indian captain Dilip Tirkey blamed missed chances for his team’s defeat. “Not being able to score goals is an old habit with us and obviously it will not go away easily,” the defender said. “We made silly mistakes out there. There is no point blaming umpires if we can’t get our act right,” he said.

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