Pakistan, fast earning a reputation ‘comeback kings’, lived up to their tag, when they clawed back from two goals down, to register a 5-4 victory over Canada in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh this evening at the Azlan Shah Stadium.
With this win, Pakistan tops the table standings with 10 points and have a game a hand against world No. 10 New Zealand in their last pool match on Friday.
In earlier pool matches, Pakistan worked their way back from 1-3 down against the Malaysians before winning 5-4, and the same scenario existed against Japan in the 1-1 drawn match.
In today’s match, Sean Davies’ field goal in the fifth minute pushed the Canadians, ranked 19 in the FIH World Rankings, ahead against their more superior opponents who are ranked 15.
Forward Harbir Sidhu, with 25 caps under his belt, then added further gloss by scoring the second goal in the 17th minute as the Canadians went 2-0 ahead, leaving Roelant Oltmans Pakistan wondering where did they go wrong.
But Pakistan, the three-time Sultan Azlan Shah Cup champions, clawed their way back into the game with two penalty corner goals within a space of two minutes, leaving goalkeeper Matthew Sarmento caught baffled on the side.
Abu Mahmood stroked home Pakistan first goal in the 28th minute and the second, one minute and 12 seconds remaining to the end of the first half, Arshad Liaqat extended the scoreline to 3-2 (36th), Ashraf Waheed Rana made it 4-2 (44th) and Ghazanfar Ali nailed the fifth (45th).
The Canadians stepped on the gear and closed the gap at 5-3 through a brace from Davies in the 45th minute.
Except for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Games which the Pakistanis won 7-1 in a pool match, record shows the contest between the two nations have always been close.
In the last 14 meetings, Pakistan won 10 times, Canada three times that included claiming a 6-0 whitewash victory over the former world champions in the 2017 Hockey World League semi-finals in London, and drawn once.
PAKISTAN: ROELANT OLTMANS (PAKISTAN)
“Let’s give credit to Canada. They played a good game and gave us a hard time today. We were only able to comeback in the second quarter after being 2-0 down. Although we led 5-3, the pressure was still on us. And we had so many chances to score and even had 11 penalty corner opportunities. At this moment we have not thought of the last pool match against New Zealand on Friday.”
CANADA: PATRICK TSHUTSHANI (COACH)
“I thought we started pretty well and were fortunate to get some good moments. It was a tough competition in the second and fourth quarters, as we came under a lot of pressure too, but I am happy with the commitment given by the players.
It was a good score, but it could have been a little different and in our favour, if the players had kept the game in control and not lose focus against Pakistan. We play Japan on Friday and I hope the team plays as well as they did today.”
