By Singapore Hockey Federation
PAKISTAN are the champions of the 2nd Boys U16 Asia Cup 2013 after emerging triumphant in the final with a 5-3 victory over Bangladesh in front a capacity crowd of close to 1,000 supporters.
In the end, the title came down to the two strongest teams throughout the four-day event and the final showed that the two were on par with one another.
The event was the official debut of the new Hockey 5 format and overall, it was a success with offense and speed ruling the action on the field.
In the first period, Pakistan’s quality clearly shone through as they scored two goals in just seven minutes.
However, Pakistan’s lead was cancelled out just minutes into the second period. Bangladesh earned a penalty and Pakistan were dealt a big blow when two of their players were given yellow cards. The bookings forced Pakistan to play with just three players for two minutes of play. Bangladesh converted their penalty and made use of their two-man advantage to level the score at 2-2.
After serving the stipulated two minutes, Pakistan welcomed back the full squad of five and put in a disciplined performance to see them through to a 5-3 win.
In other matches, Malaysia claimed bronze after beating Japan 2-1 in the 3rd and 4th Placing Match.
In the 5th and 6th Placing Match, it took a penalty shootout for Chinese-Taipei to clinch 5th spot. They beat Korea 1-0 on shootout after the match had ended 5-5.
Individual honours were also given out to three outstanding players.
Muhammad Atiq of Pakistan was named the Top Goalscorer with 20 goals to his name.
Mhommad Ashraful Islam of Bangladesh won the Player of the Tournament trophy while Malaysia’s Ammad Fahmi Azhar Ruddin earned the Goalkeeper of the Tournament award.
