72 Thursday, June 23 2011
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THE NEW PAPER
Sports
Hockey U-18 Asia Cup
STAR PLAYER:
REALITY CHECK FOR SINGAPORE Hosts no match for Pakistan despite fighting display GROUP A
SINGAPORE 0 PAKISTAN 6 DILENJIT SINGH dilen@sph.com.sg
I
T WAS a match they harboured hopes of winning. But Singapore’s aspirations of upsetting Boys’ Under-18 Asia Cup defending champions Pakistan were given a stinging dose of reality at Sengkang Hockey Stadium last night. Pakistan managed to score half a dozen goals unanswered in the 70 minutes. But Singapore coach Solomon Casoojee wasn’t disheartened by the 6-0 defeat. He said: “I didn’t expect that big a scoreline. We made too many simple errors and gave Pakistan too much space in the second half, but I think it’s a valuable lesson for the boys. “Consistency has been the team’s bugbear
and we were consistent for only the first 20 minutes. But even then, I don’t think they ran away with the match. “There are a lot of positives we can take. Even after the match, the Pakistani coach praised our intensity and fight, he said he didn’t expect that.” Singapore were only a Qadar Muhammad Bilal goal down after the first 20 minutes and were still in the match at the break going into the dressing room two goals behind after Qadar doubled his tally in the 24th minute.
Hat-trick But the home team conceded two minutes into the second period after Qadar dribbled past a couple of Singaporean defenders before finishing off his hat-trick. Pakistan added two penalty-corner goals through Waseem Abbas in a five-minute spell in the second half, before Qadir Muhammad Arslan added further gloss to the scoreline six minutes from full time. Singapore’s best chance came five minutes into the second half when they had the ball into the back of the net after a cut-back from the left flank. But the umpire ruled it out and gave the hosts a penalty corner because the ball touched a Paki-
stani leg just before it was tapped into goal. Throughout the match, there was a vibrant atmosphere from the stands. The crowd of 500 included an animated band of flag-waving Pakistani expatriates who regularly broke out into chants of “Pakistan Zindabad” (long live Pakistan) and “I love Pakistan”. After the match, the Pakistani players displayed their gratitude by hurdling over the barriers alongside the pitch to celebrate with the supporters. Said one supporter, who wanted to be known only as Azhar: “The Pakistani community here is small but we’re closely knit, that’s why we came down today.” And according to the Pakistan coach Rana Mujahid Ali, they witnessed the famous Pakistani brand of attacking hockey. He said: “We could have scored a few more because we had a lot of chances. “Singapore’s short corners and attacking (was good in previous matches), but today they didn’t have many shots or penalty corners. The few penalty corners Singapore did have were squandered with Casoojee admitting he would have to ask his team why they were so poor from set-pieces. Said Singaporean captain Nur Ashriq Ferdaus Zul’kepi: “You can’t blame the players, it was the pitch conditions which we cannot control.”
Pakistan’s Qadar Muhammad Bilal (centre) shows class that underlines why he managed three goals against Singapore. PICTURE: STRAITS TIMES
OTHER RESULTS ■ South Korea 4 China 1 ■ Brunei 1 Taiwan 4
GROUP A P
W
D
L
F
1 Pakistan
3
3
0
0
41
A Pts 0
9
2 Singapore
3
2
0
1
30
6
6
3 Taiwan
3
2
0
1
16
18
6
4 Brunei
4
1
0
3
3
34
3
5 Kazakhstan
3
0
0
3
0
32
0
GROUP B P
W
D
L
F
1 South Korea
3
2
1
0
14
A Pts 3
7
2 Malaysia
2
1
1
0
5
2
4
3 China
3
1
0
2
8
7
3
4 Sri Lanka
2
0
0
2
0
15
0
TODAY’S MATCHES ■ Sri Lanka v Malaysia (3pm) ■ Pakistan v Kazakhstan (5pm) ■ Taiwan v Singapore (7pm) All matches are at Sengkang Hockey Stadium. Tickets are priced at $10 for adults and $5 for students (11 to 16 years old). Children below 10 enter for free. Buy tickets at the stadium or online at http://singaporehockey.org/asia18/