Great Britain defeats Pakistan in Olympics

After showing an uninspiring game, the Green-Shirts lost against Great Britain in the men’s hockey tournament of the 2012 London Olympics, played at the Riverbank Arena in London.

Ashley Jackson, the brilliant midfielder of the Great Britain, inspired his team to a comfortable victory over Pakistan.

He was at the heart of almost everything as the hosts rediscovered their attacking flair, contributing two second-half goals to ensure there was no repeat of their late capitulation against South Africa.

The host team, as it was, got off to the dream start after three minutes of the game as James Tindall slotted home a reverse-stick shot. Jackson down the right-hand side set up the opportunity and Tindall made no mistake from six yards out.

The Britain team had an aggressive plan and it was unfortunate not to make it 2-0 shortly after. After winning a short corner, a drag-flick from the pin-up boy Jackson was tipped over by the brave Pakistan defender on the line.

The host team enjoyed most of the play in the first 20 minutes. The visiting team found themselves down to nine thanks to the two green cards.  However, they played bravely and held off the advances of Great Britain.

Clarke Jonty doubled England’s advantage in the 32nd minute. Jackson Ashley scored a brace for the winners on short corners in the 50th and 67th minute to give his side commanding 4-0 lead.

The Green-shirts managed to get four short corners, with three of them coming instantly, but Sohail Abbas failed to take advantage from the three. Thankfully, he finally converted fourth to at least earn a consolation goal in the dying minutes of the match.

With this unexpected loss, Pakistan had badly hampered their chances of securing a place in the semi-finals. Although all is not lost yet but from now on, they have to play every match as final and anything less than a victory would all but end Pakistan chances of booking a birth in the semi-finals.

Former legends had warned the national team not to relax and they were quite hopeful after the first two matches that the team had done better but all their hopes were dashed down by the worst showing of the national team in the match against Great Britain.

Pakistani team should take this defeat as an eye-opener and it should now focus on winning the reminder of matches as the country’s only hope of earning a medal solely rest on hockey team’s shoulders.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Aug 4 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.