K ARUMUGAM

Pakistan, in a desperate and valiant attempt to keep semifinal chance alive, played their best hockey of the Asian Games today but could not overcome gritty defending champions Japan. Needing a win to knock out Japan and thus find a place for themselves as second in the pool, Pakistan dished out an exciting fare in the entire sixty minutes of play, but equally challenging defence planx of Shota Yamada, captain Masaki Ohshi and Manabu Yamashita saw their moves doused before catch fire to protect their slender solitary goal lead for the next 32 minutes!

That the defending champions Japan defended their 3-2 lead obtained in the 28th minute through the stick of Raiki Fujishima is a tribute to their grit and determination.

It was actually Pakistan that took the lead in the fifth minute through hardworking centreforward Arshad Liaqat. This survived a umpire referral too.

However, Japan pressed hard and slotted two goals in quick time to take 3-1 lead. There was nothing wrong with the Pakistan defence but the prowess of Japanese was in the fore.

In fact Pakistan defence withstood all the three PCs that the Japanese earned in the first quarter.

In the 3rd minute of the second quarter, the contest tilted in favour of Japanese. A slow overhead effected calmly and accurately by the Japanese left winger was tapped to ground by alert Kentaro Fukuda in front of the goalie close to goalmouth. He was quick to slip the ball into the net in the same motion as he tapped onto the ground.

This goal was a beauty and a lesson in scoring in the modern days!

Falling behind Pakistan launched attacks from both ends, but was not sharp inside the circle, a couple of shots blocked by Japanese goalie Takumi Kitawa too were amazing.

Japan got a penalty in a turn over which Raiki Fujishima converted with a grounder, it seemed Pak goalie could have stopped it, but not.

Same minute, a right flank attack got Pakistan a much needed relief in the form of penalty corner which Arbaz Ahmad effortlessly converted (3-2).

That’s what Pakistan could do in the remaining 32 minutes. Numerous attacks fell short goal.

Two of the penalty corners that they got in the 3rd quarters by umpire Javed Sheikh were consumed by the smart application of referral for third umpire by the Japanese captain Masaki Okasahi.

Midway through third quarter Pakistan actually scored but this goal did not stand another Japanese referral.

Quite often the midfield of Pakistan, tireless as they were, set up forwards for many chances, which were threatening but not fruitful.

The young Pakistan forwards fumbled in the last moments either hitting out wide or placing scoops over the goalie. It was painful to see all their hard work end up without scoreboard  moving.

Sufiyan Khan in the midfield once made a dying dive to set up their forwards but both Arshad Liaqat and Ashraf Rana were loathe.

Captain Umar Bhutta worked hard on the flanks and sent a couple of overheads and crosses into the circle, but all went waste due to excellent goalkeeping and sluggish forwards.

In the end, it can be said that Pakistan did not give up easily, the young team tried their best but it was not their day.

Despite facing a 0-12 rout the other day, there were some take aways for Pakistan in that match. It had earned as many as 10  penalty corners though it could not make use of them. However, today they could get only 3 despite more attacks and assaults.

More penalty corners would have helped Pakistan.

Pakistan was one of the semifinalists at Jakarta four years ago. Its for the first time they miss out semifinal.

Now, they have to live with this unending sequence of downfalls they would face in the decade.