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| July 12, 2002 | Friday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1423 |
Pakistan to rely on Sohail: Tahir
KARACHI, July 11: Penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas would be the major threat to the opposition during the three assignments, coach Tahir Zaman, said Thursday.
“Although I will like our strikers to score goals, I consider Sohail as the major weapon who has been trained to try flicks with different variations,” the coach said.
Pakistan are scheduled to fly early Friday morning on a back-breaking almost two-month long tour starting with four Tests in Spain from July 14 to 20.
They will then travel to Manchester for July 25 to Aug 4 Commonwealth Games. After almost a three-week stay in England the greenshirts move to the German city of Cologne for the six-nation Champions Trophy from Aug 31 to Sept 8 to return on Sept 10.
Tahir, who took over the charge from Olympian Hanif Khan few months ago, said Sohail who had been coached to execute his trademark drag flicks with variations would be fully utilised during the sojourn.
According to the coach, 50 percent of goal scoring would depend on short corners and he would like his side to net at least four goals against any outfit.
“The strategy is to force as many short corners as we can and then score through Sohail. So I want 50-50 percent from forwards and penalty corner conversions,” he said.
He said to meet the needs of modern day hockey, the players had been trained to switch over to different positions during the course of attack and defence.
Tahir believed that the four games in Spain would be an excellent build-up to the Manchester event and it would also help him analyse the players’ performance ahead of the Games.
“A lot of hard work has been done by the boys. The defence which had always crumbled in the past in the event of the counter-attacks has been beefed up.
“But it is the Spain’s tour where I will evaluate the players and make plans for the Commonwealth Games,” the coach, who would use the Asian 5-3-2 system, added.
Tahir was cautious in rating any side as the favourite, however, said on paper Australia seemed to be the strongest side, but added he was not ready to take easy any of contestants at the Games.
“England and Canada are good teams in our pool, but Australia who are the champions and have recently fared well at a four- nation, seems to be the strongest,” he remarked.
Pakistan have been placed in pool `B’ alongwith England, Canada, and Wales, while Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Barbados, are in pool ‘A’.
However, Pakistan face the toughest task at the end of their trip when they land in Germany to play the elite six-nation contest — the Champions Trophy.
Apart from the unstoppable defending champions Germany, the best in the world — former world champions The Netherlands, Olympic bronze medallists Australia, Asian Games gold medal winners India and South Korea, will be in fray.
“Definitely, the Trophy will be one big challenge in presence of the top teams around the world. I have just taken the reins and for a start I think the team should at least make it to the victory stand.
“Being a single league event, it is the toughest tournament of all. But I would love to see my team clinching a medal to give the game a boost,” Tahir said.
Pakistan finished fifth at previous Trophy in Rotterdam last November.
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