Greenshirts back in form at the Europe Tour
The Pakistan men hockey team hit back the road of success after a devastating defeat in the Rabo Bank Four-Nation Hockey tournament that ended on July 2 in Amstelveen, Netherlands.
A total of two events have been over and done with at the European tour until now and two totally contradictory results came out of the Greenshirts’ performance. In the UCD Four-Nation that took place in the University College Dublin (UCD), in Ireland’s
capital city, Pakistan came first whereas the host team stood second, China as third whereas France was fourth.
On the other hand, the Rabo Four-Nation turned out as a bitter experience for Pakistan, who was placed last among the four nations namely Holland, England and Germany and themselves. The host team came first followed by England and Germany on the second
and third position, respectively.
These positions were determined on the basis of the win, loss and draw points along with the total number of goals in the entire competition. Fortunately, the host team topped the list with two wins and a loss with a total of eight goals delivered and just
three conceded, earning seven points over all.
The reason for this evaluation was due to the last minute changes in the format of the competition. In place of semi-final and final, the round robin format was followed.
The first day matches of the event got delayed due to heavy rain and it caused the total schedule to be revised.
It was an unexpected outcome for the team after a title win in Ireland. However, the team now seems to have recovered from the shock because they defeated New Zealand by 4-1 in the Test match that was played in Amsterdam on July 6.
Moreover, the team continued to rise back when they also defeated Belgium by 1-0 in a Test match played on July 8.
It has become a huge argument that whether the veteran players deserve to be in the team until the 2011 Champions Trophy and 2012 London Olympics or should be replaced with young and fresh talent.
What the hockey experts believe is that the senior players even though are the outperformers at any event, but they lack the consistency to carry on in a longer period competition. This can be related to the fact that the team outperformed the opponents
in their first appearance, but as they advanced to the next step the seniors were found tired and exhausted that resulted to an extremely poor outcome.
The seniors can only be an asset to the team if they get some rest after each competition. This became more obvious when the Greenshirts managed to rise back to their potential in the third appearance. Those are just a one day or two day Test against teams
that are being commenced with rest days in between.
If the same squad will be taken to the crucial internationals approaching this year, it will be a huge risk taken by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) because in order to beat the European nations, high stamina is needed.
The team needs to be revised by some potential new players with stamina whereas a few senior players that have the capability to match up with the team in terms of endurance level may be retained within the national squad.
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