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| May 13, 2007 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1428 |
Pakistan suffer humiliating slump at Azlan Shah Cup
IPOH (Malaysia), May 12: Pakistan slumped to their worst ever showing in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup on Saturday when they went down 4-2 to Argentina in the fifth place play-off.
The South Americans' victory, at only their second visit to the event, was an improvement on last year's seventh place.
Pakistan's worst showing before Saturday was fifth place but team coach Islahuddin was not overly upset at this year's sixth placing.
“It is not an excuse but this tournament serves to provide some feedback on the team and where we stand at the moment,” he said.
The Argentines took a 3-0 lead at half-time and had enough in the reserves to stop a second half Pakistan fight back.
Pedro Ibarra opened the scoring in the 11th minute of the match and this was followed by goals from Lucas Rossi and Juan Garreta in the 16th and 24th minutes.
In the second half, the Pakistanis played much better and Ehsanullah provided a glimmer of hope with a penalty corner goal in the 47th minute.
Skipper Rehan Butt added a second in the 61st minute.
But Ibarra put a stop to the fightback with a goal four minutes later, which effectively sealed the South Americans' victory.
“This is a tremendous result for us. We have improved with each match and for me it is important that they players did not allow the defeat to India affect them in the last two matches,” Argentine coach Sergio Vigil said.
“This tournament has been a good start to our preparations for the next two assignments which are the Champions Challenge in June and the Pan American Games in July,” he added.
In the play-off for seventh place, Asian games silver medallists China avoided the wooden spoon be beating Canada 4-2.
Liu Xian Tang scored the tournament's second hat-trick with goals in the 17th, 66th and 69th minutes.
The other goal was scored by skipper Song Yi in the 27th minute, his sixth strike of the tournament.
On Sunday, the final will see Australia and Malaysia facing each other while India and South Korea will battle it out for a podium finish.—AFP
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