World Champions Australia defeats Pakistan by 7-0 in Olympics
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012 4:51:15 by Faisal Farooq
World Champions Australia on Tuesday conquered Pakistan by 7-0 to qualify for the semifinal of London Olympics 2012.
In quite an unprecedented way, Pakistan didn’t show any resistance against the forward line of Kookaburras.
With this great victory, the world champions sailed through the semi-final round. With this defeat, Pakistan lost hopes in earning a place for the next round.
Pakistan though began its Olympics campaign with a draw against Spain but it showed glimpses of its past by winning against Argentina and South Africa.
But their spineless loss to Great Britain in between made things hard for them and has put them in a do-or-die situation in their last league match against Australia.
However, they failed to shine and lost the game with a simple failed show-up. The team management and the PHF in particular gave same old lame excuses to their dismal performance.
One of them was of the blue turf but one fails to understand why the turf was blamed for their own follies like crucial missing as it is just the change of colour otherwise the surface is the same.
Hockey pundits believe the sacking Dutch coach Michel van Den just before team’s Olympics preparation dented the team’s progress but they should understand that at that point in time the team was being built under new management.
Although under the Dutch coach, the team regained the 2010 Asian Games gold medal at Guangzhou, China after a lapse of 20 years and qualified for the London Olympics and also won silver in the 2011 edition of the Azlan Shah Cup but they should also understand the implication the PHF was facing for his non-cooperation in team’s training.
Australia will play world number two and Olympic champion Germany in the semi-finals on Friday in a match worthy of a gold medal shootout.
Tags: Australia, Azlan Shah Cup, Germany, London Olympics, Malaysia, Michel van den, New Zealand, Pakistan, Pakistan Hockey, Pakistan Hockey Federation, PHF, South KoreaShort URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=30472
Posted by Faisal Farooq
on Aug 7 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan, Sports.
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I recall what Badshah Khan once said when asked on Pakistan’s dismal performance in Seoul Olympics in which it stood at no.7 (8 was bottom). He said he did not want to comment on regional teams. “Show me a Pakistan team I will comment”. That probably was in 1986 or so. We don’t seem to have changed one bit and are regularly losing not just in Hockey but in Cricket as well as in Squash. Lets build Pakistan teams purely and purely on merit.