Speaking to the media after arriving in Pakistan from London where the team participated in the 2012 Olympics, Abbas said that the “world saw how we worked hard for the Olympics” and that “success or defeat is in the hands of God.”
“Australia is the number one hockey team. We played competitive matches and fought back very well and I am satisfied with me and my team’s performance.”
When asked about his availability in the Hockey World Cup scheduled in 2014, he said, “I have not thought about my availability as yet.”
The team’s head coach, Akhtar Rasool, while speaking to the media said, “It has been four months since I took charge of the hockey team and during this time I have developed the squad. I believe that the way the team performed in the Olympics, except for the one match against Australia, has been commendable.”
Rasool said that the team worked really hard for the event.
“As far as the federation is concerned, it did everything to facilitate and look after the team.”
The head coach said that the team “awakened the nation’s hopes in hockey.” He said that the team’s next target is the 2014 hockey world cup and that he had hopes that the team will achieve it.
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Its a high time to cut back facilities from hockey as these players dont have any physical fitness, mental stamina, hunger for success and so on. Instead Olympic committee should concentrate to individual event like shooting, boxing, wrestling, judo etc and Pak can get a gold for sure if they train for next 4 years.
Awesome work guys! They gave hope to the people of Pakistan. Dont start speaking nonsense guys. Keep it up the Improvement!
In a terrorist hited poor country, how we expect miracles from Hockey team . . .??
"Reality based expectations" means that you guys cannot win any tournament, then what the point to spend tax payers money on you.?
Ban PHF and save millions of the tax payers, money.
No wonder we lost 7-0 at the Olympics with this guy as captain with his defeatist mentality.
Once you say that it is hands of God, you are washing your hands of the affair. Being in the hands of God, does not mean you do not make your best effort to win. You simply cannot just show up at a major tournament and HOPE to win it. This statement tells me the hockey team went to Olympics without a plan or strategy and were just praying that they win a medal. This individual should be immediately removed as captain as he has absolved himself of all responsibility in this fiasco. Coming in 7 and all the manager/coach can say is that we came ahead of Indians. Pathetic.
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!! For once I am proud of my Hockey team. They did exceptionally well and the comment by Sohail Abbas is actually a very wise. The whole world appreciated the way we played our hockey and the team made me proud. Our expectation of retaining the lost glory with the current infrastructure and facilities is all but realistic. The poor guys didn't even have the facility of playing on the new blue turf before the Olympics and here we are commenting on their attitude and fitness by watching just a few games. Lets stop criticizing and commend their performance. The best part of this team was the emergence of quite a few youngsters.
We must understand what Sohail Abbas means by adjusting our expectations. Hockey might be labeled as our National Sports but it is treated as a step sister. The amount of hockey played in this country has drastically reduced over the last decade or two and to keep the same expectations from our team is in fact very unrealistic.
@Akhtar Rasool: Forget Australia and talk about our performance against Britain!
Sohail Abbas has lost his sting! Please comment on the number of penalty corners that he missed.
The overall nature of hockey has changed over the years. We should realize this and work cope with the changes. We need stronger and fitter athletes. Our players looks feeble against Australians, Dutch or Germans!
There is a serious lack or aggression.
So you guys want to deprive the nation from their right to "expectations" even? sham on you including PHF...
If one analysis the performance of Pakistan in recent events, one fact stands out. i.e we loose steam as the tournament progresses. We started with draw against a very strong European side (SPAIN), won against Argentenia (who have beaten us in previous world cup) and then simply fell away. Even victory against South Africa was a last minute miracle. Thats one of the reasons we have done poorly in Champions Troph with much better players because the format requires sustaining top of the line effort in consecutive matches.
So the bottom line is we simply lack the physical fitness required for the modern version of the game. Remember Shahbaz Senior (a brilliant dogder with excellent stick work), getting off balance and loosing control whenever a German defender rubbed shoulders with him.
Without concentrating on physical aspect of the game, all the coaches in the world cant help us.
The fact remains that they miserably failed in beating or even giving tough fight to higher ranked teams. Even victory against much weaker South African side was by a narrow margin. Only consolation is draw against SPAIN but then every Dog has its day.
I watched a few matches and I noticed that the Pakistanis were not motivated enough. Its not that they were not trying, they did not have the extra surge needed for the wins. And no matter how low you are in the ratings, you should always go for gold. Such a negative attitude of 'reality-based' expectation is not that of winners. Its of losers looking to make excuses. Have you ever seen the South Africans or Australians or even Belgians make such excuses?