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LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will not make any change in the team management of the national Under-18 team despite their failure to defend the title in the recently held Junior Asia Cup in Singapore.
Pakistan lost to South Korea in the semi-final and later grabbed the third position after beating Singapore 6-0.
PHF secretary Asif Bajwa, who arrived here from Singapore on Monday, said though the current team could not defend the title, the team management (Rana Mujahid as manager, Danish Kaleem, Ahmad Alam, Anjum Saeed as coaches) would complete their term till the Under-21 Asia Cup next year, which will also be the qualifiers for the next Junior World Cup.
Bajwa said the boys are talented and there is nothing to worry about the results of the tournament. However, he said the players needed more experience to convert the opportunities into goals in the future games.
Against Korea, Bajwa said, the team muffled no less than six chances, including open sitters, when the rival goalkeeper had also been beaten. “The forwards failed to connect the ball into the cage on a bad day for Pakistan and the players must work on improving the goal scoring skills.”
Bajwa said he had showed his concern before the Asian Hockey Federation for including very weak teams in the qualifiers and even India did not feature in the event. He said Pakistan lost just one match (semi-final) but apart from that, the team played high-class game against all the opponents.
