PAKISTAN’S 2-0 loss to Germany in the final of the Champions Trophy in Bhubaneswar, India, on Sunday deprived the team of a golden opportunity to win the prestigious event after 20 years and to recover some of their lost glory.

The Germans, who claimed their 10th title in the tournament’s history, displayed a superior game of skills and stamina to emerge as deserving champions.

Though Pakistan held the Germans to a goalless first half, they failed to cash in on the scoring opportunities that came their way, and were, in fact, a shadow of the fiercely competitive side that got the better of Holland and India in the quarterfinal and the semi-final respectively.

Also read: Germany beat Pakistan to win Champions Trophy

Clearly smarting over a series of ugly incidents that marred their 4-3 win over India on Friday, the Greenshirts sorely missed the services of midfielder Mohammad Tauseeq and reserve goalie Ali Amjad as they had been duly handed a ban by the game’s governing body for conduct unbecoming in the high-voltage clash against the Indian team.

There is no doubt that a win over India has always held special meaning for  Pakistani teams as well as their fans since the inception of this country, and emotions quite naturally run high whenever the two arch-rivals face off in international sports. Nevertheless, the offensive behaviour of the national team players on Friday was deplorable and cannot be condoned in any way.

Besides embarrassing Pakistan hockey itself, the nasty incident stymied the euphoria of a rare victory over India, in India, and compelled Pakistan manager-cum-coach Shahnaz Shaikh to tender an apology to the International Hockey Federation soon after the semi-final.

That said, a number of critics have also chastised the federation for succumbing to Hockey India’s threats to boycott all world-ranking events that later induced the world body to ban Tauseeq and Amjad after letting off the two without any penalty earlier in the day.

It is also being felt that the hockey federation should have taken notice of the hostile response of a partisan Indian crowd during the semi-final and the aggression shown by the Indian media in the post-match presser that saw both Shahnaz and captain Imran walking out in a huff.

The moral of the story, however, is that the lack of players’ grooming continues to mar Pakistan hockey and despite the better playing skills displayed by the team this time round, their inconsistency impedes their rise to the top.

Published in Dawn December 16th , 2014