Pakistan out of Asia Cup as two goals disallowed

ISLAMABAD: Bad luck and poor finishing cost Pakistan a place in the Asia Cup Hockey semi-finals as the Green-shirts went down fighting 2-3 against Japan Thursday in Jakarta.

More importantly, Pakistan also lost all hopes of playing the World Cup to be held in India in January 2023.

Even after a close loss against Japan, Pakistan’s hopes of making it to the Asia Cup semis were alive as India needed to beat Indonesia by a 16-goal margin in their last Pool match to progress to the knockout stage. India achieved that target in the last minutes of the match, ending Pakistan’s hopes of making it to the semi-finals and a ticket to the World Cup.

Malaysia, Japan, Korea have qualified for the World Cup. India qualify being the hosts. Pakistan turned out to be the unluckiest team to miss out by the narrowest of margins.

In the all-important match against Japan, two Pakistan goals were disallowed. Pakistan’s fourth goal converted by Junaid Manzoor was disallowed as the umpire pointed out that there were 12 Pakistan players on the field instead of 11.

Later, when Umar Bhutta struck a goal, the umpire disallowed it following a video replay as Waheed Rana was seen hitting the keeper before Bhutta scored the goal.

Throughout the 60 minutes, Pakistan were seen playing a chasing game. Japan were first to make an impression as they scored two goals in the first quarter. But Pakistan bounced back to reduce the margin through Ijaz on a deflection in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, Japan restored their lead only to see Pakistan bouncing back to reduce the margin through Mubashir Ali’s penalty-corner goal.

From then on, Pakistan changed their strategy and were seen playing attacking game that totally pinned down Japan. They got no less than fifteen goal-scoring opportunities against the Asian Champions during the last 25 minutes of the match but failed to sound the board.

Some dazzling and exciting game was on display from the new-look Pakistan team as Japan faced a barrage of attacks. The Asian champions were seen playing defensive hockey against an all-out attack.

Junaid and Ejaz missed a couple of open goal-scoring opportunities and so were others during an exciting display of hockey by greenshirts during the last fifteen minutes.

“Our team had done everything to win or pull a draw against Japan. I have never seen Pakistan playing with such authority, yet we ended up on the losing side,” manager Khawaja Junaid said.