CONTINUING with the discussion that I had started last week, I wish to put on record my appreciation of the recent PHF decision to move against Tariq Aziz. As far as I am concerned, it was just the right thing to do for the Pakistan Hockey Federation to suspend the player whose one moment of madness caused Pakistan the final of the Commonwealth Games. While I do not suggest that Pakistan would have surely won the game had Tariq not committed the stupidity that he did, but everyone knows that 0-1 was not an insurmountable lead that the Australians had at the time of the incident.
I am sure the PHF decision would have sent the correct signal not just to the player concerned, but also to all members of the team and, indeed, to all those aspiring to be part of it in the years to come. There is no disgrace in losing after playing a fair, hard-fought game. But it is certainly a disgrace even to win after playing a foul game. You may have a stick in hand while being on the field of play, but it is a stick meant for playing which is slightly different from the manner in which it is used by louts and hoodlums. It was this minor difference that was overlooked by Tariq, and hopefully the PHF action will discipline him and make him a better player when he returns to the fold. If it happens, it will be good for the individual as well as for the team.
Moving on, let us get back to the performance of the team in the Commonwealth Games. This is important in view of the busy season ahead of us. Only by learning from past mistakes can we ever hope to move forward in the future, or so I think.
One simple way of assessing any team’s performance in a a tournament is to analyze it on the basis of the points table which also feature the number of goals scored and conceded by the team. Hockey, after all, is about scoring goals and avoiding conceding them.
In Pakistan’s case, the team scored 18 goals in the round matches while eight goals were scored against it. In the semifinal, the scoreline stood at 2-1 in favour of Pakistan, and in the final, it was 0-3 against us. All inclusive, Pakistan scored 20 goals in the competition while 12 goals were scored against it, the goal difference being +8, and the net result being the silver medal.
In the case of Australia, the team scored 20 goals in the round, conceding five. In the knockout stages, it won the semi-final 6-0 against Malaysia, and the final was won 3-0 against Pakistan. In all, the Australians scored 29 goals while conceding just five. The goal difference, thus, comes out to be +24, and the gold medal was the net result of this effort.
Comparing the two sets of statistics — +8 and +24 — it can be seen without much of a hassle that there is an exact three-time difference, which in practical terms means that Pakistan’s performance was three times inferior than that of the Australians. These are very simple calculations, but they do speak a lot about the gap that separated the two teams in the Commonwealth Games.
In terms of gravity, the statistics reveal that any team with that kind of data has a double-edged problem: up-front with the forward line which struggles to convert chances into goals; and in the deep defence which struggles to keep the raiding forwards of the opposing teams at bay. The midfield, at best, is good in its own comfort zone, but otherwise is able to support neither the forwards nor the defenders. This is how any independent coach would dissect the team performance.
With the World Cup qualifiers now round the corner, I am sure that the team management would have done the needful, and, considering the level of opposition that is expected during the competition, it would do well. More on it next week. n
CONTINUING with the discussion that I had started last week, I wish to put on record my appreciation of the recent PHF decision to move against Tariq Aziz. As far as I am concerned, it was just the right thing to do for the Pakistan Hockey Federation to suspend the player whose one moment of madness caused Pakistan the final of the Commonwealth Games. While I do not suggest that Pakistan would have surely won the game had Tariq not committed the stupidity that he did, but everyone knows that 0-1 was not an insurmountable lead that the Australians had at the time of the incident.
Comparing the two sets of statistics — +8 and +24 — it can be seen without much of a hassle that there is an exact three-time difference, which in practical terms means that Pakistan’s performance was three times inferior than that of the Australians. These are very simple calculations, but they do speak a lot about the gap that separated the two teams in the Commonwealth Games.
