Worst game ever in long time, but will not quit: Shahid Ali
NEW DELHI: After suffering the first international defeat against South Africa to end their hockey World Cup semi-final hopes, Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan on Saturday conceded that the match was the worst in his playing and coaching career.
Pakistan lost 3-4 to South Africa in their penultimate Pool B match at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium, which ended any hopes of a semi-final berth and Shahid said it was a forgettable performance by his men.
“It was a disappointing match particularly the second half. It was the worst in my coaching career as well as during my playing days. Some four-five senior players were recalled to the team but there are question mark on their performance. We could not have played worst than this,” a dejected Shahid said after the match.
Senior players, including drag flick expert Sohail Abbas, midfielder Waseem Ahmed and forward Shakeel Abbasi, were recalled to strengthen the World Cup team.
Shahid, however, rejected any thoughts of resigning from the post after the debacle and said he would continue at the helm till the Asian Games later this year.
“Why should I resign? I have been given the job till the Asian Games. We will analyse after the World Cup what went wrong in the tournament,” he said.
The Pakistan coach felt that the goal which was disallowed (from a penalty corner) after his side was leading 1-0 could have turned the game in their favour.
“It was a clean goal. It was stopped properly and Sohail (Abbas) scored it. But I don’t know what the video umpire had thought. Had it been a goal we would have been 2-0 up and the fate of the game would have been changed. I am though not complaining as I don’t want to speak about umpiring decisions,” he said.
Shahid was also disappointed by the performance of drag- flicker Sohail Abbas.
“We had high expectations from him but somehow he did not score many goals,” he said.
Sohail, on his part, said he was disappointed by his and team’s performance but felt he did not get too many penalty corners to show his prowess.
“I am disappointed with my performance. But I did not get many penalty corners to score. We were disallowed a goal today from my penalty corner. I though it was a goal and had we were up 2-0 the result would have been different,” he said.