Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2004

Entertainment Cricket and Other Sports
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Azlan Shah Trophy from today](http://www.fieldhockey.com/)

By S. Thyagarajan

Kuala Lumpur Jan. 7. Acknowledged as an impeccably organised event among the few elite competitions in world hockey, the 13th edition of the Azlan Shah Trophy tournament gets under way on Thursday.

This being the year of the Olympics, the tournament is the testing arena for the seven countries in the fray. Of them three — Australia, Germany and South Korea — are sure of their berths in Athens as the continental champions. They would be looking to assess their strength.

For the rest — India, Pakistan, Spain and Malaysia — it is more than that. They have to qualify from the pre-Olympic event in Madrid in March.

For the defending champion, Pakistan, after its victory at Ipoh against World champion Germany, it has not been smooth sailing. In fact, it was a disastrous year. Five defeats against India in eight outings, including in the Asia Cup at the same venue in September, was enough to cause despair to the point of roping in a foreign coach.

What the new Dutch tactician, Rolant Oltmans, has to offer the seasoned squad that includes stars such as Sohail Abbas, Waseem Ahmed, Kashif Jawaad, Nadeem Ahmed and Rehan Bhatt, is being watched with interest.

Korea not taking any chances

The Korean experiment last year of tinkering with the squad backfired miserably. The administration was left with no option but to recall ageing stars. After a gap of a year or so, it is difficult to comprehend how effective Song Seung Tae and Yew Woon Kon will be now.

Interestingly, the Koreans have never won the Azlan Shah Trophy, although they finished runner-up four times in eight appearances.

India, despite being a mix of youth and experience, can put up a formidable challenge. The team, with Dhanraj Pillay and Baljit Singh Dhillon in the frontline and a decent mid-field, headed now by the proficient Ignace Tirkey, can stand up to the pressure. But a great deal depends on how the youngsters, particularly in the deep defence, will shape up against the power and precision of attacks from Germany, Australia, Pakistan and Korea.

Malaysia getting out of the blues

The host, Malaysia, sailed through a traumatic phase in 2003. Placed at the bottom at Ipoh and in the Champions Challenge it was altogether a bleak year. The only silver lining was stretching India in the semifinal of the Afro-Asian Games at Hyderabad. The German coach, Paul Lissek, was sacked for the disastrous results but reinstated because of the pressure from the players. Kuhen Shanmuganathan, the veteran skipper, and his enthusiastic bunch should go all out to shrug off memories of those miserable moments of 2003.

Thursday’s matches: South Korea v Pakistan (1-35 p.m.); India v Germany (3-35 p.m.); Malaysia v Spain (5-35 p.m.).

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Pakistan 4 South Korea 2

Germany 3 India 1.

Malaysia 3 Spain 3

Pakistan :k:

Goal Scorers:

Pakistan: Rehan Butt (2), Nadeem Ahmed and Shabbir Hussain.

Korea:

Seong Jong Ho
Lee Jung Seon

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:salam:

Pakistan win.

Mubark everyone. thanks ehsan bahi for updates.

:jhanda:

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congrats every body :jhanda:

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:jhanda:

way 2 go!

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**Pakistan open campaign with win against Korea **](http://www.planetfieldhockey.com/PFH/Item-View-10879-147)

Defending champions Pakistan, used their individual skills to the maximum advantage while scrambling to a 4-2 win against South Korea in the opening match of the 12th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament at the National Stadium here today.

For Pakistan, right winger Rehan Butt, emerged the star of the day with two brilliant goals from difficult angles in the 14th and 42nd minutes. Skipper Nadeem Ahmed, knocked in the second in the 39th and finally Shabbir Hussain (68th) ensured a comfortable win.

The Koreans, who scored through Seong Jong Ho (35th) and Lee Jung Seon (43rd), would have lost by a bigger margin had it not been for a gift goal in the 35th, courtesy umpire Stefan Brenner of Germany. The incident triggered a minor verbal altercation on the sidelines between the two benches.

The major difference between the two teams, apart from the individual skills of the Pakistanis, was the rather languid defending by the Koreans who surprisingly left far too many gaps near the top of their circle.

Though they did not concede even a single penalty corner, while themselves forcing nine with one conversion, the Pakistani forwards enjoyed much space that they capitalised on.

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Good win by Pakistan!
inshAllah india ko bhi marain ge:D

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Insha’allah Pakistan will be victorious against the indian.

DIL DIL PAKISTAN
DIL DIL PAKISTAN
JANN JANN PAKISTAN.

:jhanda:

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Alright. Way to go, Pakistan! :dhimpak:
inshallah, Pakistan will beat india. Pakistanis play really well in the first half, but the second half…
:jhanda:

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:jhanda:

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Pakistan 3 - India 2

Goal Scorers:

India: Baljit Singh Dhillon 15th min, Rajpal Singh 18 th
Pakistan: Sohail Abbas 12th min, 26th min, 50th min

India got Sohail Abbassed.

:jhanda:

:hula:

Well done Pakistan. :k:

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Congratulations to Sohail Abbas for his 17th career hat-trick. :k: however, I don’t think coach Roelant Oltmans will be happy with today’s performance by Pakistan. As he said in the first game against South Korea, the defence was weak, and there were too many mistakes. It seems that Pakistan has made the same mistakes in a match against India. The only reason, I think, Pakistan have won is because of star power which India doesn’t have it. What happened to all the forwards, hello?

Had it been Germany or Australia, result would have been different. Oltamas was right from the first day on his job, a lot of hard work is needed to improve the performance of the team.

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:salam:

Allah Ka Suker Hai Pakistan Jeet Gaya.

Congrats to Pakistan & to Guppies.

:jhanda:

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am not a hockey fan so just one question....
the results table on planetfieldhockey shows pak-korea results as:
PAK 4(1)
KOREA 2(1)

so what does (1) indicate????

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by armughal: *
am not a hockey fan so just one question....
the results table on planetfieldhockey shows pak-korea results as:
PAK 4(1)
KOREA 2(1)

so what does (1) indicate????
[/QUOTE]

Half time score.

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congrats to all pakistanis :jhanda:

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Sohail Abbas flattens India](Sohail Abbas flattens India)

Sohail Abbas’s fine hat-trick gave defending champions Pakistan a 3-2 victory over India in the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

The drag flick ace scored thrice from penalty-corners in the 13th, 27th and 51st minutes to give Pakistan their second straight victory from as many matches in the tournament.

India, who were beaten by Germany in their opening match on Thursday, suffered their second defeat.

India scored from field goals through Baljit Singh Dhillon in the 15th minute and Rajpal Singh, in the 18th.

The victory enabled Pakistan end their losing streak against India, who had won the last two meetings between the teams – in the final of the Asia Cup and Afro-Asian Games. It was, in fact, Pakistan’s first victory in four matches against India in recent times.

Pakistan, however, will have little to cheer about as India are playing the tournament with several young and inexperienced players. They failed to score even a single field goal though they made numerous inroads into the circle and exposed the chinks in the Indian defence. Lack of coordination and some poor finishing undid the good work by their forwards.

Veteran Abbas’s exploits saved Pakistan the blushes as India, at one stage, were up a goal.

Abbas gave Pakistan the lead in the 13th minute but India bounced back with goals from Baljit Singh Dhillon (15th) and rookie Rajpal Singh (18th).

But the drag flick ace made full use of the penalty-corners his side got, scoring twice again in the 27th and 51st minutes from Pakistan’s fourth and seventh pebnalty-corners to seal the fate of a struggling Indian team.

Pakistan, who beat South Korea on Thursday, have six points from two outings.

Pakistan dominated the proceedings from the hit off even though the Indians tested the opposition defence with attacks and counter attacks in between. They took the lead in the 13th minute when Abbas scored off the team’s second penalty-corner, awarded after Kashif Jawaad was obstructed inside the Indian circle.

Abbas’s searing drag-flick to the top left corner hardly gave Indian goalkeeper Kamaldeep Singh any time to react.

The Indians forwards, who appeared patchy in their approach throughout the match, were lucky to score the goals, which were largely possible due to poor clearances by the Pakistani defence.

Captain Dhanraj Pillay, after getting a pass from Sandeep Michael, hit hard at the opposition post, but it deflected off young goalkeeper Salman Akbar’s body. The defenders failed to clear the ball in time as Dhillon, who was standing on the left side of the post, put the ball into an open goal.

Rajpal’s second goal was more of a fluke, as Ignace Tirkey’s cross from the left was not trapped cleanly by Adnan Maqsood inside the circle. The ball landed in front of the Indian, who slammed home much to the delight of the handful of supporters at the ground.

But Pakistan hardly allowed anything to the Indians after that as they held possession. They forced as many as seven penalty-corners as against one by the Indians.

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:k: :jhanda: :bhangra: :nuch:

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Sohail Abbas:jhanda:
jiger hai tu jiger:k:

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Other results:

Spain 3 Australia 1
Germany 4 Malaysia 2




 League Standings

Teams P W D L GF GA GD Pts 
Germany 2 2 0 0 7 3 +4 6 
Pakistan 2 2 0 0 7 4 +3 6 
Spain 2 1 1 0 6 4 +2 4 
Malaysia 2 0 1 1 5 7 0 1 
Korea 1 0 0 1 2 4 -2 0 
Australia 1 0 0 1 1 3 -2 0 
India 2 0 0 2 3 6 -3 0