KARACHI: Pakistan opened their hockey campaign at the London Olympics with a spirited 1-1 draw against 2008 silver medalist Spain on Monday.
Almost a packed stadium applauded Pakistan more for its artistry than the robustness of their opponent. Whenever Pakistanis made an eye pleasing combined move the spectators applauded it.
Striker Rehan Butt was the scorer for Pakistan while Pau Quemada struck for the Spaniards immediately after Pakistan’s goal. Pakistan was under intense pressure in the Group A encounter when the defenders were unable to clear the ball for initial 10 minutes. At this stage skipper Sohail Abbas used his experience to relieve the pressure and started scooping the ball into the Spain's areas that had good effect.
After a goalless first session, Pakistan broke the deadlock when Butt slammed the ball into the board on a pass from Haseem Khan in the 46th minute, but Spain equalized the deal as Pau Quemada found the target with a reverse hit that beat goalkeeper Imran Shah.
Pakistanis gave no impression of being in any manner not good on playing on the blue pitch. It seems that unlike the green astro turf, the blue pitch need less water and moving with the ball looks less cumbersome as it looked on the heavily-watered green pitch. Blue pitch looks faster than its green brother.
At the post match media conference both, Captain Abbas and manager Akhtar Rasool looked relieved because Pakistan had not lost any point but won one. A winning start would have been better, former Olympian Akhtar Rasool said and added Pakistan would try to get all the points in next matches as Pakistan needed them to reach the semi-final.
“In competition like Olympics the teams need maturity and said the senior had done fine in the opening match. They would certainly improve in the next matches,” Captain Abbas said.
Pakistan will play their next pool A match against Argentina tomorrow hoping to register their first win and giving themselves a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals at this year’s Olympics.
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