LAHORE: Pakistan junior hockey team’s head coach Rana Mujahid Ali has said his team is upbeat about winning the final of the seventh Junior Asia Cup, which will be played against hosts Malaysia on Sunday.

“The boys are in high spirits and they want to win,” said Mujahid from Malacca, Malaysia while talking to Dawn.

Pakistan have qualified for the final for the first time since 2004 when they lost to India in Karachi.

“Malaysia has a good emerging side and will have the advantage of playing before the home crowd.

“I have prepared my boys for that opposition to come out victorious,” the former Olympian said.

He said Pakistan was quite capable of winning the final as they had showed improvement with each match.

“We defeated South Korea for the first time by a big margin of 6-1 in the semi-final and earlier defeated China 1-0, drew against India 2-2 and won against Sri Lanka 14-0 to top the pool,” he said.

He said the Malaysians were going all out to back their team adding that great interest was shown by the Malaysian government as its officers visit matches regularly which create more interest among the masses.

He said he was given the task of qualifying for the World Cup, which is being held in India in 2013, and he had achieved that target after qualifying for the final.

He added that the junior team was in a position to produce a good number of seven to eight players for the national team.

Meanwhile, PHF president Qasim Zia has left for Malacca to watch the final.—Sports Reporter