Pakistan edge past South Africa in thriller
Pakistan’s Abdul Haseem Khan (3th L) celebrates scoring a goal against South Africa with teammates. -Photo by Reuters
KARACHI: Pakistan beat South Africa 5-4 in an exciting encounter on Sunday at the men’s hockey tournament at the London Olympics.
Two goals from Abdul Haseem Khan, one each from Shafqat Rasool and Waseem Ahmed plus a penalty corner from captain Sohail Abbas helped the Greenshirts bounce back at the Riverbank Arena in London after the 4-1 thrashing at the hands of hosts Great Britain in their previous match.
South Africa opened the scoring early through Thornton McDade in the first minute after which Pakistan missed several chances to equalise but finally broke through the South African defense in the 19th minute as Khan netted the equaliser.
However, Justin Reid-Ross put South Africa ahead again in the 21st minute after scoring from a penalty corner. Pakistan did not have to wait long for another equaliser as Rasool scored in the 22nd minute. Just two minutes later, Pakistan were ahead after Khan scored his second goal but they could not hold on to the lead as Reid-Ross scored South Africa’s third goal from a penalty corner just before half-time.
Wade Panton put South Africa ahead in the second half when he scored in the 37th minute but again Pakistan pulled level through a penalty corner in the 63rd minute as Abbas scored his 348th goal. Ahmed scored the winning goal for Pakistan in the 66th minute.
“If our strikers play well, we’re in the game. The forwards seized the chances,” said Akhtar Rasool, chief coach of the Pakistan team.
Previously, Pakistan held Spain to a 1-1 draw in their opening match followed by a win against Argentina and a loss against Great Britain.
Australia leads the Olympic men’s hockey pool A with 7 points. Britain is currently second with 7 points and Pakistan is third with 7 points after the most recent match.
Pakistan play their next match against Australia on Tuesday, August 7.
Go get the gold
Shameful that a country of 180 million can only hope for a single medal, if that, in the Olympics.
The green shirts only survived with their best effort displayed toward the end. The Aussies are a highly physically fit and mentally fit site and from past experience have whipped the Pakistanis in every dept of the game. The Pakistani team will have to work as a cohesive unit and strike like lightening just as Hasan Sardar did back in the glory days. And most importantly the need to put in their best and then expect help from upstairs. All the Best!
It was a thriller, no doubt about it. Pakistan has played four hockey matches so far, won 2, lost 1 and draw 1. It's not too bad performance until now. Good luck for next endeavor. Put your maximum efforts and you will reap the excellent results.
Go Greensss!!!
Pakistan Hockey Team will get a drubbing of a lift time from Australia. I don’t know wny we are cheering this win. Do we want to bracketed with the likes of SA, Argen, Belarus. What a shame.
Bravo!!!
Lucky to have scored twice in the last 2 minutes. Its would be a miracle if we beat Aussies in the last game with this kind of defence and the poor goal keeper that we have!!!
poor performance by Abbasi and sohail abbas, this way pak is not going to make a chance for semi finals. Lot of home work need to be done.
I would like to know if Abdul Haseem Khan is a nephew of the chief selector Hanif Khan?
I had heard that Hanif Khan did not select his own son in the team, who on the other hand is a very promising hockey forward.
Can somebody throw some light on this issue.
Congratulations, Pakistan. Your team is getting almost good enough to even give a hard time to some of the top WOMEN'S teams in the world. What a sorry and sad day that the people in Pakistan are getting excited that it was a close thriller against world #12. As i said yesterday , Pakistan is in a race to be the last. Now that is a race, I guarantee we will win the gold!!
How can Pakistan be in the race to last, when they are one win away from qualifying for the semis? After four games, England and Australia are at eight points and Pakistan and Spain are at seven. The same world #12 (RSA) by the way, drew with England, and would have won if not for the last minute controversial goal.
There are serious issues with the team – chiefly the inconsistent goal keeping and lack of intent when attacking in the penalty area where the team appears to be content by winning a penalty corner, rather than scoring a goal. Having said that, this has been a good tournament for Pakistan, except for one game, and they can reach the semis by winning their last group game. Go Pakistan!!
Here is little mathematics (logic) to answer the question can Pakistan beat Australia to qualify for sure to play semi finals. Pakistan beat Argentina by 2-0, whereas Argentina draw levels with Australia 2 – 2. Australia vs. South Africa (SA) 6-0, whereas Pakistan defeated SA by 5-4 and SA draw level with GB 2-2 However defeated Pakistan by 4-1. Based on these outcomes one can conclude that teams are very close to each other in terms of ability and competitiveness it all depends how they react to opportunities available to them at a given point of time during the game. Having said that Pakistan needs to improve on Penalty corner conversion rate.
Aamir, pathetic dreamers like you is the reason for the abject failure of your society and the level of hockey in Pakistan.
Bury your head in the sand a little deeper It will help not to notice a few more kicks to the hind side by even more lowly ranked teams
The green shirts must play an agressive game but keep their anger under control. SHOULD NOT ARGUE WITH THE RFEREEES FOR GOD"S SAKE. It coul just cause more trouble.
Pakistan zindabaad.Nothing succeeds like success.Well done Hockey team.
Farooq Shaikh
Hong Kong
No doubt SA is lower ranking team but after watching the fighting spirit of our forward line in this game I have a feeling that Pak forward line is the one which could win the Gold, they just have to be offensive (instead of defensive) and try their best, and defence line has to be very offensive, Inshallah victory will be ours. God bless Pak team.
I bet lots of us did not even need a nail cutter, excellent job
Well done Pakistan. You are our only hope for a medal in Olympics and to raise our flag in the olympics village.
Keep up the good work and go all out to defeat Australia in the last group match our prayers are with you guys :]
Great game. Keep on working hard and you will be rewarded.
Follow GB and Australia draw, Pakistan's final match is a do or die match. A win against Australia is highly unlikely but I believe that our team can still do an upset by beating in form Aussies.
great job Guys
exciting thriller , Game with aussies will b crucial for green shirts on the road to semi-final…..