Indo-Pak heavyweight battle today
Bangladesh take on Japan in last group match
Sports Reporter
Bangladesh national hockey team are hoping to improve their result in their last match of Pool A in the Hero Asia Cup Hockey Championship when they will take on Japan today while there will be a high voltage match today when the arch rivals India and Pakistan will face each another at the same venue, Maulana Bhashani Hockey Stadium.
Bangladesh, who already suffered woeful defeats at the hands of Pakistan and India by 7-0 in each match left their group last match to take on the 17th World ranked Japan, who are very much in the race to move into the super four when they halted Pakistan on 2-2, though went down to India by 1-5.
However, in a pre-match press conference, Mahbub Harun, head coach of Bangladesh said the team may have a setback if Russel Mahmud Jimmy and Korshedur will not recover and to be fit to play against Japan.
Both Khorshed and Jimmy had injuries during the match against India, Harun said, Injuries are not major but it depends on how much they would recover and I hope they would be available for the match.
Mahbub, who thinks one of the great reason of boys suffering of shocking defeats in the previous two matches as they were mentally down. If our boys could not mentally up in the match against Japan, will have to concede the same fate. I talked to the players and tried to motivate them and hope they will not repeat the previous result and will do better.
Harun, who has still belief on his boys said, My boys will try to recover from their odd conditions tomorrow. Japan is a good team and we will try to do well too.
Harun, former national star, who told in the post match press conference after the matches against India and Pakistan that players could not execute plans in the game and the great reasons to suffer so heavy defeats.
The heavyweight match, will more important for Pakistan than their rivals India, as the former are in a unsettled position to make their place in the Super four but the later have already confirmed their place in the Super Four.
As, Pakistan despite having a big win against Bangladesh but after a 2-2 draw with Japan they felt into a must win situation to confirm the position in the last four.
However, the Dutch coach of India said the match against Pakistan is nothing but some other matches when Sjoerd Maryne said, For me its just another match and we have approached the match just like any other match. We are focusing on our own development. Strategy is really important for us. Strategy means what the players will have to do and it is really important to succeed.
Captain of India Manpreet Singh, who led the team from front in every match, besides scoring goals, also assists others to score.
He also talked like his coach, as he does not also like to take the match specially it is not any particular match to give special importance, it is like any other matches also. We are like to take any extra pressure for this match.
We have already played two matches, against Bangladesh and Japan, we only think we will have to improve our performance.
About their last consecutive victories against Pakistan in London, Manpreet said, It is past that Pakistan team missed a few players of the current squad. We just looking forward to put our best tomorrow. We need to play our own game.
But the Pakistan coach Mohammad Sarwars expressed different opinion to his rivals coach, as he said, You cant deny the pressure in an India-Pakistan match. We will have to improve a lot to avail scoring opportunities and I have ask my boys to enjoy themselves.
Pakistan captain Mohammed Irfan, who thinks that they will have to play well tomorrow, said, We have to play really well as its a match between India and Pakistan. We didnt play well against Japan. We saw the videos of the match and pointed out what went wrong and we will be working hard to rectify those mistakes. There is no scope for relaxation against India.
