Home > Sports > Hockey > PTI > Report

Sohail Abbas leads Pakistan charge

March 02, 2004 22:31 IST

Pakistan shrugged off a listless first-half performance to overrun Canada 4-2 in their opening Pool B match in the Olympic men's hockey qualifying tournament in Madrid on Tuesday.

Sohail Abbas made amends for a first-half penalty stroke miss and converted two of the five penalty-corners Pakistan forced in the 37th and 51st minutes to spearhead Pakistan's victory charge.

Also Read


Holland too good for South Africa

Men's Olympic hockey qualifier - Complete coverage


Kashif Jawad put home a Ghazanfar Ali pass in the 41st and then Shakeel Abbasi dribbled his way through for the fourth goal in the 58th.

Enjoying a healthy lead, Pakistan turned complacent and allowed Canada to score twice in the 68th and 69th minutes through Ken Pereira and Paul Wettlaufer respectively.

The Pakistanis took all of 35 minutes to settle down. Though they had more of the say in the first-half, their play was marked by some loose ball distribution and the inability of the forwards to find a way through a packed defense.

However, on change of ends, the Pakistanis found their rhythm to score at will while putting Canada in their place with some speedy moves after Abbas had put them in the lead.

The Canadians looked rather ill-equipped and their performance today was replete with wrong passes and a shaky defense.

It was only in the final minutes that they marked their presence with two goals and that too due to some shoddy defending by the Pakistanis.


Article Tools
Email this article
Print this article
Write us a letter



Related Stories


'We'll make it to Athens'

India to meet Japan in final

India eves win Asia Cup hockey



People Who Read This Also Read


Holland too good for SA

'We'll make it to Athens'

British footballer's admission








© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.











Copyright © 2004 rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved.