By Zakir Hussain SyedOn the basis of Australia’s performance in the pool matches, especially against Pakistan, everybody rightly took Australia’s title victory for granted.
However,it was a totally different Pakistan on the day of the final. They mounted attacks from the word go and twice stormed into the Australian striking circle in the first ten minutes missing easy scoring chances.
Their defensive strategy was solid and for the first time in the tournament, one saw Australian coach Rick Charlesworth looking worried and pacing up and down near the team bench. In the pool match, Pakistan had looked very vulnerable against speedy Australian forwards but in the final Pakistan’s defence was very well organised giving few openings to the Australians.
They were held in check until the 43rd minute when Christopher Ciriello scored through a penalty corner. Shortly afterwards, Sohail Abbas equalised for Pakistan by converting a penalty corner in the 51st minute.
Australia’s second goal came through Glenn Turner in the 44th minute. Rehan Butt scored the second goal bringing the large Pakistan supporters to their feet. With the match two all during normal time extra time was taken to decide the champions.
Pakistan missed an easy chance in the first half of this extra time. In the second half of extra time Australia scored the match-winning goal through Ciriello who scored off a penalty corner.
There were two extremely refreshing aspects of Pakistan’s performance in the final.
They proved to be as physically fit and speedy as the Australians and fought until the very last minute with the same energy as the Australians.
The second key element was Pakistan’s different match plan which was totally different from their pool game against the Australians. I noted this element during the final of the Asian Games in Guangzhao last year and it was very obvious in the final in Ipoh as well.
This one element can make a difference between defeat and victory as all top teams of the world have different strategies for different teams depending on their strength and weaknesses. Such decisions are made on the spot and obviously Dutch coach Michel Van Heuval and Khawaja Muhammad Junaid had done their home work for which due credit must be given to them.
Another important factor was the performance of youngsters like Syed Kashaf, Tauseeq Ahmad and Imran Junior. They justified their inclusion with their performance.
However, the most worrying aspect of Pakistan’s performance was the missing by the Pakistan forwards and one could count at least half a dozen missed chances which should have been converted.
Such a high percentage of missing can prove disastrous in any tournament. Kh Junaid with whom I raised this issue agreed but is confident of sorting out this deficiency during the European tour.
I also had a long discussion with Charlesworth whom I have known since his days as Australia’s captain. He is always honest and frank in discussing issues.
He is the best hockey coach in the world on the basis of his achievements, having first taken the Australian women team to world titles and now having achieved the same for the Australian men’s team.
He told me that he had a hard core base of 52 players from which to pick the Australian team while we barely have a base of just thirty players. We also need to have a second penalty corner option.
Sohail Abbas may till be scoring but his missing percentage is now progressively increasing. Without a second specialist option, Pakistan are without the element of surprise which all teams invariably have. India’s new specialist Rupinder Pal Singh was as deadly as Sandeep Singh. It just shows how every team works on these key areas.
The standard of umpiring in the 20th Azlan Shah Tournament was unbelievably poor and all those in the press box agreed on this together with team coaches some of whom were very vocal.
But more of it later. For Pakistan, Azlan Shah Tournament was a good step forward. As I wrote earlier, the climb back in the elite league of top teams is not going to be easy. However, Pakistan’s progress has so far been encouraging.
For me the most memorable moment of this tournament was a truly spectacular run by Shakeel Abbasi who, after having collected the ball near Pakistan’s striking circle weaved past the entire opposition denfence in the style of great Shahbaz Junior.
It was no wonder that he won the best player of the tournament award which he so richly deserved. He was the only Pakistan player in the Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament eleven which was announced after the tournament.
to be continued
(Zakir Hussain Syed is Pakistan’s internationally renowned sports administrator, sports broadcaster and sports analyst)
The Daily Times
