ISLAMABAD - Pakistan hockey team coach Khawja Junaid was in no mood to accept the responsibility of green shirts dismal thrashing at the hands of South Korea in Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup being played at Stadium Azlan Shah, Ipoh on Monday, as their young and inexperienced opponents gave them a hockey lesson.
So much so was Junaid upset, when a journalist asked him about the reason of team’s poor showing against Korea, he roughly answered: “Correct your words, I am not making excuses regarding missed chances. It is the game some times you perform and some times not. Yes, it is true that we missed a lot of chances against New Zealand in the earlier match, and now missed a few clear cut chances against Korea, but this is the part of the game.”
“We are here for the preparations of London Olympics, but it does not mean that we are here for loosing the matches. This is the new team and needs some time to improve their skills and technique at this level,” he said.
To another question, Pakistan coach categorically denied that green shirts are badly missing the likes of Shakeel Abbasi and other senior players. “We are in the phase of making a new team (the same statement Khawaja Junaid made about two months back) and we have enough players in junior team who could easily replace these giants,” Junaid replied.
“If you have more questions then talk to Chaudhry Akhtar Rasool. I am no more availablem,” inside sources informed this scribe on condition of anonymity. When another reporter pointed that Sohail Abbas was not firing the goods, so why not another player was given opportunity, Kh Junaid said that we rely on Sohail because of his experience, while on the other hand newly appointed Pakistan Hockey team captain Sohail Abbas also present lame excuses for the team’s two successive defeats and said, it was not his day, it is to worth mention here that ace short corner specialist Sohail Abbas missed two penalty corners in the match against New Zealand and now missed four against South Korea.
Korea outclassed Pakistan in the important match, the game was stopped for a while after the first half due to heavy rain, it provided a chance to Pakistani players to take rest and bounce back but the Koreans were not in a mood to sit back and allow their opponents any out side chance of staging highly unlikely recovery.
Pakistani players failed to make good moves and even failed to defend their goal post properly, the source further adds: Pakistani defenders blocked the view of goalkeeper on numerous occasions and he was left with no other option but to concede goals. The match also exposed the brilliance of Pakistan team as well as management which according to them are in Malaysia for the preparations of London Olympics, not to win the matches or tournament.