Asian Champions Trophy successful despite defeat in final, says Pakistan skipper Mohammad Imran
Mohammad Imran, the captain of the national side, hailed the Greenshirts’ performance in the recently held Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos, China although Pakistan, the 2010 Asian Games Champions, failed to maintain their unique record of winning the inaugural
edition of each and every tournament after losing the final 2-4 on penalty shootouts against the traditional rivals India.
The skipper stated that in spite of their defeat in the final they managed to test their reserve strength for the more important upcoming tournaments like FIH Men’s Champions Trophy and the London Olympics.
The skipper praised the youngsters’ efforts and performance in the tournament and believes that the young players can replace the seniors in the major tournaments. Although the young guns represented their country for the first time at the highest level
of the sport, they managed to take the team to the finals.
“We tried new combinations with success and that will help us in the Champions Trophy and the Olympics. That was our main target and we have achieved that,” Mohammad Imran added to his comments.
Mohammad Imran also stated that the youngsters exhibited a good show in the absence of the senior and experienced players. However, Pakistan’s penalty-corner conversion rate decreased in the absence of penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas, who holds the
World record of most goals and has the highest penalty corner conversion rate of 65 percent.
The national team failed to convert a single penalty corner out of eight in the final of the event.
“Although the new players failed to score in the final, they availed their penalty-corner chances well earlier in the tournament. They can improve with more training and exposure,” Mohammad Imran stated about their missed penalty corners in the final against
the arch-rivals.
Meanwhile, Khwaja Junaid, the manager of the national team viewed that even Abbas’ presence does not mean that every penalty corner can be converted into goal.
“Many people are saying that Abbas could have scored in the final but his presence doesn’t guarantee a goal every time we get a penalty corner,” Khwaja Junaid stated about the veteran drag flicker.
Pakistan’s impressive performance at the tournament has given the team a confidence boost and it will be interesting to see how they carry their winning momentum into their next match-ups.
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