KUALA LUMPUR, March 5: Two of Pakistan hockey greats, Samiullah Khan and Islahuddin Siddiqui, both here, have termed the national team’s 2-3 defeat to Germany Tuesday as no disgrace.

“Overall it was not a bad performance although the bench management could have done well by playing five forwards in the match,” said Samiullah.

“We could have beaten Argentina, that defeat upset the entire tempo of the side.”

But Sami said that coaches Hanif Khan and Khawaja Junaid did the right thing by playing Ali Raza as an additional defender. “The move yielded results as Pakistan were able to beat Spain Sunday. Ali Raza scored Pakistan’s first goal in the 2-0 victory.

He said that Pakistan’s best games of the competition were against Spain and defending champions Holland to whom they lost 1-2 Saturday. We also fought well in today’s match and I think the performance of the players was quite satisfactory.”

Sami, a former Olympian, advised the team managers that they should now concentrate fully on this year’s Asian Games by putting the World Cup defeat behind them. “The preparations should start now, because we have hardly six months before the Games.” The South Korean city of Pusan is due to stage the Asiad.

Islahuddin, who has played three World Cups, felt that although the defeat to Germany was “unfortunate”, Pakistan had a good match. “I thought that they would be able to score the required goals and qualify,” he said.