Junaid expects good results from the Greenshirts in the Europe Tour: Hockey News
Yesterday, on June 8, Pakistan men's hockey team’s manager, Khawaja Muhammad Junaid, shared his expectations from the team with media.
According to him, the team will give an impressive result by performing well in their upcoming Europe tourney. He seemed to be happy with the team picked out for the job, including veterans like Shakeel Abbasi and Sohail Abbas who hold an outstanding performance
record.
He shared the fact that Abbasi won the best Player of the Tournament, whereas Abbas was the highest goal-scorer, 6 goals, of 20th Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament. Moreover, the overall team played well in both the Asian Championship and the Azlan Cup.
When asked about how long the seniors will be the part of the team, he replied until their performance and fitness meets the required international standards.
Apart from the seniors, the young players selected in the squad have made a balanced mixture of both skills and expertise. Junaid commented, “We are working on these players for the last six to eight months. We have selected the final team keeping in view
the past performance of players.”
When asked about the little number of junior players selected for the tour, he replied, “We want to carry some junior players with the team like Muhammad Rizwan, who was the part of national team in Azlan Shah Tournament. But the junior team is going to
play Asia Cup in Singapore and it needs players for better results.”
The over-lapping of Asia Cup with the Europe visit made it hard to name the young players in the squad.
In the meantime, yesterday, June 8, the Pakistan National hockey team was visited by David Kuijper, the Assistant Head of Mission Netherlands, at the Nasser Bunda Stadium, Islamabad, during their training camp.
He praised the team’s recent performance at the Azlan Cup, played in May in Ipoh, Malaysia. The team made it into the finals against the World Number One, Australia, to whom they lost in the second half of the sudden death. David shared his interest on seeing
the team perform well under their present Dutch coach, Michel Van Dan Heuvel, and earn back the team’s lost glory.
According to him, the team was back on the road to success, since they have achieved gold in the 2010 Asian Games after 20 long years. The team will be accompanied by their coach and manager for the European Tour.
Tags: