AUCKLAND: Pakistan Hockey Captain, Muhammad Imran said there was no excuse of his team’s loss to Spain in their second match of the Champions trophy hockey tournament here on Monday at North Habour hockey stadium.“We played bad and lost the scoring chances and I would say it was again a story of missed chances which cost us today’s important match and we suffered our second defeat of the event”, he told APP after the match.Imran said a team which missed a number of chances does not deserve to win and on the other hand Spain availed most of the chances which came across their way, exhibiting more professional approach and anticipation.
He said the players played good hockey in the first half though they missed ideal sitters and seemed out of touch in the following session and gave enough room to the opposition for scoring goals.
“We played bad, not up to the mark, despite some good efforts in the first half and we could not counter our opponents in the second half. We equalized the score on two occasions and we needed a similar approach when we conceded another goal but could not get hold of the situation as Spain scored their fourth goal to take away the game from our grasp”, said the Pakistan captain.
Team’s manager, Khawaja Muhammad Junaid said the two successive defeats have ended Pakistan’s chances for finishing among the top four positions and now they have the most prime objective to get the fifth place to qualify for next year’s Champions trophy.
“No doubt losing two matches in a row is not a good show but we should not forget this aspect that it is a team which is going through rebuilding process for next years Olympics”, he said.
“During the champions trophy young players are being exposed to competitive hockey as a part of our preparations for Olympics and we are satisfied with their learning”, he said adding “It is not a fair thought to expect extra ordinary results from a team which is in the process of making”, he asserted.
Junaid said Pakistan team is taking part in Champions after a long gap of six years and it could not get a chance in previous years to rub shoulders with world’s best teams. “Unless we keep playing with top hockey nations on regular basis our hockey standards cannot improve and we stay at the same level where we are at the moment, there is dire need to have frequent hockey ties with those countries who are ruling world hockey”, he added.
Junaid said team will go all out to lift the level of its performance in the remaining matches to get some consolation. “This tournament is not yet over for us we will be playing few more matches and hopefully we will be getting some good results”, he said adding “Definitely we will be reuniting to make our presence felt in the event”. (APP)