Pakistan

Pakistan hockey captain Muhammad Waseem has urged his fellow team members not to feel overjoyed after their 3-1 win over Germany in the Champions Trophy as real task is ahead.

“It is just a good beginning required to open a tournament to get confidence but win does not mean the task has been accomplished,” he told this agency after the match at National Hockey Stadium here on Saturday.

Waseem said still a number of matches were yet to be played and it was not wise to feel overjoyed. “Of course, it is a good beginning and we must continue our flow of victories which is only possible when we play with collective efforts and are fully focused,” he added.

The home captain said the first half performance of the team was not satisfactory but defended it by saying that, “It normally happens in the start of the tournament to adjust and I hope we will be further improve as the tournament progress.”

Team’s head coach Roelant Oltmans pointed out that the team did not play to his expectations in the first half and said much could have been done if the players were focused. “It is good to see team winning and in a tournament like Champions Trophy we are off to a good start and hopefully we will be seeing much improved performances from our players,” he said.

He expressed his satisfaction over conversion of penalty corners rejecting a questioner that getting two goals out of five was not an encouraging performance.

“Sohail is in good form and we have received a major share of our goals from him,” he said. He warned the players not to get complacent from the victory and prepare for the next assignment against New Zealand.

Assistant coach Asif Bajwa termed the win a morale booster for the team and said it would infuse confidence in the players to show encouraging results in the coming matches.” Obviously, we made mistakes and we will make amends after reviewing performance to take on New Zealand in a more professional way,” he said.

Bajwa said a win in the beginning of a tournament was always a good omen and expressed the hope that team would build it on.

German captain Philip Crone said penalty corner shooter Sohail Abbas the main difference between the two teams and his performance led Pakistan to win. “Pakistan earned five short corners and Sohail converted two to guide them to win,” he said. The German captain admitted his side wasted a few sitters in both halves of the play but said it was a good performance by a young team. “We are in the process of learning and surely we have learnt a lot from our mistakes and hopefully we will be in better form in the coming matches,” he said. app

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