The green-shirts pulled a sensational upset when they defeated world number one Australia by 4-3 at their home-ground in Perth in the title match of the Tri-Nations Hockey Tournament on Thursday. It is important to mention here that the Pakistan hockey team is the ninth ranked team in the International Hockey Federation's latest rankings while Australia are comfortably placed at number one.
Sohail Abbas, Shakeel Abbasi, Mohammad Imran and Muhammad Tauseeq scored the goals for Pakistan. The victory will boost Pakistan hockey campaign for London Olympics 2012, which is less than a year away. "It is great news for us that our team has defeated Australia, who are world champions. The win in the final against Australia is of great importance especially considering the fact that we would feature in Champions Trophy next month and London Olympics next year," former Olympian and chief selector Hanif Khan told newsmen.
Hanif said that the performance of Pakistan has enhanced his confidence in the team and he said that there are now high chances that Pakistan comes in top-four in Champions Trophy to be held in New Zealand. "I am hundred percent confident that if Pakistan comes in top-four in Champions Trophy, then they would certainly find their way to Olympics podium next year as well," he said.
He further said that the final had been a very tense match for green-shirts as they had conceded eight goals from the same outfit in their previous encounter. "They managed to score four goals in the final after having lost the previous encounter by big 8-2 margin to Australia. This shows the potential of our players and therefore I am confident that they would do well in coming challenges," he said.