Greenshirts opens first Asian Champions Trophy with a victory – Hockey Update
Shakeel Abbasi played a significant role and scored the game-winning goal in the second half, as the Greenshirts overwhelmed Malaysia by a single goal, 3-2 to open the first edition of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Yijinhuoluo Hockey Stadium on September
3 in Ordos, China.
It was a positive show from the Greenshirts which is comprised of comparatively younger players. The Pakistani side marked their third consecutive victory in the last ten months against Malaysia. Earlier, the Greenshirts had defeated Malaysia in the Asian
Games held in Chinese city of Guangzhou and Azlan Shah Hockey Cup held in May 2011.
Hanif Khan, the Chief Selector of the Greenshirts also spoke with the media in a pleasing state of mind and declared the victory a positive sign. He said that fresh talent proved their worth to play international hockey.
He said, “I am very happy to see that they have won their first match and I hope they will do well in the coming games. We are observing all players and our selection for Champions Trophy and the London Olympics will depend on their performance in tournaments
like this one.”
He continued that they are observing the performance of new inductions on how they perform in under-pressure games against big professional hockey teams. He was of the opinion that the selection of the youngsters for the upcoming London Olympics will be
made on the basis of their playing performance in the ongoing tournament.
The coach informed that they had a tremendous amount of pressure while picking up the team particularly the youngsters. However, they took risk and finalised the line-up purely on merit for the first version of the Asian Champions Trophy. In his opinion,
the new inductions are future of the country therefore they should have been given opportunities in international tournaments.
It was the Malaysians that drew first blood in the fourth minute of the mark in the hands of Mohammad Amin Rahim when he converted a penalty stroke and put his side ahead at the scoreboard. In the later time, both teams showed an impressive defence and denied
numerous efforts from either side. Haseem Khan managed to take the ball inside the defensive circle of Malaysia and slammed a powerful shot that got past the goalie and made the result even at one-each. Amir Farid and Mohammad Imran exchanged one goal in the
concluding minutes to increase the suspense.
Shakeel Abbasi scored the game winner in the 63rd minute of the match and sealed the victory at 3-2. The youngsters performed brilliantly for Pakistan. It will be interesting to see how well they manage to do in their next match-up in the exciting
tournament.
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