Triumph in Japan

There was finally some respite for Pakistani sports fans as the national hockey team successfully defended its Asian Champions Trophy title in Japan, beating the hosts 3-1 in a pulsating final. The team maintained an unbeaten record throughout the tournament, notching up stellar victories against China, Oman, Malaysia and archrivals India during the group stage of the six-team event before advancing into the final. This success comes as a huge morale-booster to a side, which failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup recently, the first time Pakistan has been unable to do so. Given the team’s superb show, Pakistan’s absence at the World Cup next year will be all the more painful for their fans as the victory has shown that the national team still has the ability to compete with the best.

One highly encouraging aspect will be the performance of the young players in the team. After a disappointing show at the International Super Series Hockey 9s held in Australia, last month, the youngsters quickly made amends by delivering a much improved performance, something which was also noted by the team’s head coach, Tahir Zaman. In the highly competitive final, the young team proved its worth coming from behind to seal the win after Japan had ended the first half of the match with a 1-0 lead. On previous occasions, such a scoreline would often result in the greenshirts losing heart quickly, but this time, Pakistan did not give up and registered three quick goals after the 66^th minute of the match to seal the fate of their opponents. Pakistan now need to build on this performance. It is important that the team does not become complacent and works on eliminating its weaknesses. Pakistan is currently ranked eighth in the world; if we want to challenge the best teams in the world, this ranking has to improve. Perhaps, the next step for the team management will be to target becoming one of the top five teams of the world. This is important if we want to bring back the glory days of Pakistan hockey.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2013.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.