Pakistan football team target SL Gold Cup

Coach Akhtar Mohiuddin plans to utilise Asian Games experience to boost team for event that starts December 1.

KARACHI: Pakistan football team is now looking to the Sri Lanka Gold Cup 2010 to redeem themselves after their disappointing performance at the 16th Asian Games. The Pakistan under-23 squad was eliminated in the first round of the Games and failed to score in three matches, finishing with two losses and a draw.

However, coach Akhtar Mohiuddin said that the experience in China will help boost them in the event that starts on December 1, showcasing seven other South Asian countries.

Mohiuddin said that the inexperienced team played exceptionally against Maldives and Oman and promised that things would be different at the Gold Cup.

“I think our biggest setback was the cancellation of the South Korean tour before the Asian Games,” Mohiuddin told The Express Tribune. “I think the players would have gotten a better idea about international matches through the South Korean tour. We lost in the Asian Games because of nerves but I think we’ll perform well in Sri Lanka because we’ll add more experienced players and work harder on the forward line.”

Meanwhile, former Tottenham Hotspur player Graham Roberts, who was enlisted as Pakistan’s football consultant in October, feels that the team has to improve their goal-scoring skills.      Roberts said that he wants the team to improve the team for the 2011 Asian Football Confederation President’s Cup and thus planned to stay with the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) for at least a year.

“I think in 18 months we can improve the team and it can win a lot of matches. There is a lot of potential in the team and grooming the talent needs time. I think with the Asian Games they have gained international experience and this should take them ahead,” said Roberts.

Meanwhile, the PFF is looking forward to extend Roberts’s two-month stay. The PFF will be meeting with Roberts today to decide further details for his appointment and extension.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2010.