IPOH: Pakistan got off to a great start in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, thrashing South Korea 4-0 on Sunday to secure their second consecutive win.
A day after defeating Malaysia 5-4 in the opening match, Pakistan had four different scorers against South Korea, including heroic Sufyan Khan, who scored a hat-trick in the previous match.
Abdul Hanan Shahid took the lead in the third minute with a solo goal, making an impressive run past six opposition players before flicking the ball to the right of goalkeeper Kim Jae-hyun.
“The goal I scored was a team effort,” Hannan said after the game. “If it wasn’t for the united support of our teammates, we wouldn’t have been able to score. Our mission here is to play good hockey and after the match against Malaysia, our game improved. I did.”
Pakistan scored two points in seven minutes in the second quarter. Arshad Liaqat doubled the lead for Laurent Ortmans’ side in the 20th minute, and Ghazanfar Ali added a third with a field goal.
The Korean team tried to fight back in the second half, but Sufyan’s drag-flick conversion ended the contest 10 minutes before the end.
The victory gave Pakistan six points and they beat New Zealand 4-1 in Sunday’s other match, taking them to the top on goal difference with Japan, where the top two teams will play on Tuesday.
Japan defeated South Korea 2-1 in Saturday’s opening match, with goals scored by Sei Kimura (13th minute), Raiki Fujishima (23rd minute), Tsubasa Tanaka (43rd minute), and Ken Nagayoshi (60th minute). did. New Zealand responded with Scott Coslett’s penalty corner in the 55th minute to beat Canada 7-1.
Pakistan had a tough game against Malaysia on Saturday, but Ortmans said after the match that his players were ready to put themselves on the line in pursuit of glory. An example of this is forward Salman Razak, who played against South Korea despite being hit in the knee in the previous game.
Coach Ortmans told reporters after the match, “Salman is a great player who is always eager to fight for his country no matter the situation. Players like him make our team better.”
“He wanted to play, but I wanted to make sure he was okay, so I did an X-ray to see the extent of his injury. Thankfully he was fine, so I ended up playing against him in today’s match.
“He did an exceptional job in today’s game, doing all the dirty work for us and even received a green card for the team. His presence motivated everyone on the team to fight for the team. I respect this group for giving their all.
“There is no doubt that we played a much better game today than against Malaysia yesterday. The team controlled the game better today. We also worked on improving on the mistakes we made in the previous game against Malaysia. However, you can see that the team was in a better position and had better command.
“We did some analysis before the game against South Korea, but there was also a team effort in the plan. I’m happy with how the team came together in just three days of training for this tournament.”
South Korean coach Min Tae-seok regretted that his team was unable to fight back after conceding an early goal.
“They were faster than us, but several times during the game we couldn’t match their speed. Besides, we lost motivation after conceding a goal and couldn’t fight back,” he told reporters. Ta.
Published at Dawn on May 6, 2024
