Pakistan men’s hockey team arrives in Amsterdam for the Rabo Four-Nations Tournament
Pakistan men’s senior hockey team arrived at their second stop of the European tour, Amsterdam in Netherlands, yesterday, on June 27, to participate in the 2011 Rabo Four-Nations Hockey Tournament to begin today.
Their last appearance proved successful in Dublin after they defeated the host team, Ireland by 2-1 in the final match of the University College Dublin (UCD) Four-Nations Tournament that was held on June 26.
Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) President, Qasim Zia, was delighted with the team’s title win and told media yesterday that it will soon be the world’s best hockey team.
He continued that the team’s efforts proved that they were heading towards the right direction, pushing hard to reach the top position.
He related this victory with the hard-work and end-less efforts made by the federation to make the team produce such fine results and improve their overall standing like reaching the finals of the 2011 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and winning
the UCD Four-Nations in Ireland.
These Asian Games champions gave an outstanding performance, among which Sohail Abbas was the start performer. Abbas single-handedly led his team towards victory in the finals by scoring both the goals through penalty-corner conversions.
According to Zia, the players of the squad have become high-spirited and more confident to face any huge challenge ahead of them.
In other developments, Zia informed the media about the new Olympic type blue colour astro-turf that has been proposed to be carpeted at the National Hockey Stadium (NHS) in Lahore that will meet the internationally set standards for the synthetic turf for
hockey.
This will allow the team to practice well for the 2012 London Olympics and will help attract new talent. Zia stated, “The federation is keen to attract youth towards hockey and a lot of pragmatic steps are being made.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan will feature in the opening match of today’s Rabo Four-Nations against the host team Netherlands.
Moreover, England will also be playing on the first day against Germany in which the English player, Richard Mantell, will celebrate his century of international matches, representing his country.
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