08 March 2005	Tuesday	26 Muharram 1426

LAHORE, March 7: Pakistan carved out a 4-2 victory over Japan in the four-nation junior hockey tournament at National Hockey Stadium on Monday.

Not only Pakistan's defence was slack, poor finish also marred the performance in the match in which home side could earn two penalty corners while Japan four.

"In an attempt to score more goals, our side did not pay attention to force short corners, while on the other hand the players failed to cash in on field efforts due to poor finishing," said Pakistan coach Tahir Zaman. But Tahir said he was satisfied with the score line, saying the players might have been under some pressure because of new team officials. The coach said that chances of victory against India were 50-50. The two arch-rivals face each other on Tuesday.

"Though the Indians have an edge by beating us in the recent past, now they will face a new team here," he said. Japan captain Koji Kayukawa expressed satisfaction over his team's performance.

"We received little chances of scoring but now will give better performance in the next match," he said adding that his side earned valuable experience playing against Pakistan.

Pakistan captain Shakeel Abbasi missed a sitter in the 8th minute but later compensated by opening the scoring three minutes later before again wasting a chance in the 22nd minute.

Japan restored parity through Yoshiro Sugai in the 38th minute after he received a pass just outside the circle. Pakistan launched a quick attack and earned the first penalty corner in the 39th minute to go 2-1 up through Imran Warsi who sent the ball over Japan goalkeeper.

Maintaining their tempo, Pakistan earned their second short corner in the 41st minute only to see Imran failing to convert. The green shirts, however, made it 3-1 in the 44th minute when Tariq Aziz blasted home after a perfect pass from Mohammad Akhtar.

Japan recovered to force back-to-back penalty corners in the 53rd minute and succeeded on the second. Hiroto Noda converted the short corner with a carpeted push to make the score 3-2. But six minutes later, Akhtar dodged past two defenders before netting a spectacular goal from the top of the circle.

TUESDAY'S FIXTURE: Japan v South Africa; Pakistan v India.