Tour of Europe: Pakistan juniors beat Dutch club 6-3

Six different players score against MMHC Voordaan

KARACHI: Pakistan U21 hockey team defeated Maartensdijkse Mixed Hockey Club (MMHC) Voordaan of Netherlands 6-3 in the opening match of their European tour yesterday.

Interestingly, six different players got on the scoring sheet for the visitors. Three goals were scored in open play with as many coming through penalty corner conversions.

Sohail Riaz, Shan Irshad and Dilber Hussain had field goals to their names, while Mubashar Ali, Abubakr and Hasan Anwar found the target through penalty corners.



Team captain Dilber Hussain told The Express Tribune that the opponents were a junior team of the club who had been training throughout the year. “They had good skills; however, we had more international experience and we followed instructions given by our coaches,” he said.

“Our team was strong because we covered for one another and assisted goals for each other. Our game play and stamina improved after the 9-a-side tournament in Karachi recently,” said Hussain.



Head coach Tahir Zaman explained that match conditions were similar to that of Karachi. “The turf they are using here is green but it’s in great condition. The juniors played really well,” he added.

The junior team will play several more matches with other top clubs of the country before they head to Spain to play a test series against the hosts’ national junior team.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2016.

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