Rehan leads Pakistan’s win over Poland

KARACHI: The Pakistan hockey team beat Poland 2-0 in the last match on their Europe tour following a 6-0 win against the same opposition earlier.

While Pakistan struggled throughout the first half, Rehan Butt scored both goals in the second half to seal the result for his team. Earlier, the 6-0 win came courtesy Rehan’s hattrick with Haseem Khan, Mohammad Taufeeq and Shakeel Abbasi scoring one goal each.

Pakistan played five matches on the tour out of which they won three with the losses coming against Belgium and Holland.

“The team’s performance has been satisfactory as far as the training is concerned,” assistant coach Ahmed Alam told The Express Tribune. “However, the new players failed to impress Heuvel [head coach].”

According to Alam, a 16-member squad for the Commonwealth Games will be shortlisted out of the 21 players on the Holland tour. Alam said that the squad will not have any new player as the youngsters still needed significant training.

The team will return to Pakistan on September 22 and begin a four-day camp before going to New Delhi on September 29, where they will play a friendly match against South Africa the next day.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2010.