Hosts the Netherlands won the Rabo Four-Nation International Hockey Tournament after beating Pakistan 4-0 in their last fixture at the Wagener Hockey Stadium on Saturday. Dutch skipper Evers Floris led his team 1-0 in the 11th minutes of the game. Pakistan players were not satisfied on the umpire’s decision but the review powers were not allowed during event.
After going 1-0 down the green shirts tried their best but they were not allowed to do so. Abbasi made his best efforts to level the match but his individual attacks proved unproductive. Pakistani defender did some mistakes that resulted in penalty corner for the hosts in the 19th minute. Holland got penalty stroke when short corner push touched the feet of Pakistani player. On penalty stroke, Weustof Roderick double the lead.The green shirts looked bit nervous and the team management on the bench made two changes simultaneously but failed to reduce the deficit.
Pakistan got a penalty corner in the 31st minutes of the match, but Sohail Abbas failed to score the goal. Holland earned penalty corner in the last minute of the first half and Weustof Roderick made the score line 3-0. In the second half, tips from coach helped the green shirts and they displayed good skills. They got a couple of open chances to reduce the deficit including a shorts corner but failed again.
In the 55th minutes, Hertzberger Jeroen scored the fourth goal for the hosts. Later, the Dutch wasted two penalty corners in the last 10 minutes and four opportunities to post more goals. Earlier, this match was scheduled to be played on June 28, 2011 at same venue but the weather did not allow organisers to stage the game.
Pakistan coach wants more
internationals: Pakistan’s hockey coach Michel van dan Heuvel said that maximum international competitions would be valuable for the green shirts before the London Olympics 2012 which is the chief objective of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF). “International exposure is the best way to uplift the skills of the players. The PHF imparted great opportunity to the players to encounter top ranking international teams during the ongoing Europe trip,” he said at the Wagener Hockey Stadium. He also said that he had a comprehensive plan for the London Olympics.
“The program has also been told to Bajwa and will be carried on till the mega event of the world. The team is improving day by day and will produce acceptable results,” he hoped. He said that he is satisfied with the team performance so far, as Pakistan grabbed the Asian Games title after the break of 20 years, he said.
“The green shirts also performed well in the last edition of Azlan Shah in which Pakistan lost the final against the World Champions Australia on golden goal.
The results are open and any one can judge the performance of national team and the international hockey experts are also appreciating the Pakistan team, which is doing well against best sides of the world. We played remarkable game against England and Germany in Rabo Four-Nation Hockey Cup 2011,” he said. Pakistan team would visit China, Australia and India before the London Olympics and that would be excellent for the boys to learn and enhance their game skills.
