Kuala Lumpur:
Pakistan’s FIH Junior World Cup campaign ended with a 6-3 defeat at the hands of deposed champions Argentina on Saturday, leaving them in eighth place.
Drag-flick specialist Arbaaz Ahmed scored all three goals for Pakistan, who were tied 2–2 at the end of the first half, only for Argentina to take the lead in the third quarter by scoring twice in the space of five minutes. Hockey stadium in Bukit Jalil.
“We were bad defensively,” Pakistan’s Dutch head coach Roelant Oltmans told reporters at the post-match press conference. “However, my players need to improve their basics [eight of them] Has played for the senior team.
“We lose possession of the ball too easily, and our turnovers are not good. There are some things we need to work on before future tournaments. However, I don’t blame my players; Work on them is still in progress. Players need to be creative and their fitness levels need to improve.”
Oltmans said defensive failures had been plaguing Pakistan since the quarter-finals, where they lost 4-2 to France before losing 7-5 to Australia in the fifth-to-eighth place classification match.
“We played our best hockey against the Netherlands, Belgium and New Zealand to finish second in the pool,” he said. “We did not concede many goals in the group matches. However, despite conceding 10 goals in the three knockout stage matches, we conceded 17 goals. If we had been better defensively, we could have performed better in the tournament.
,[In the 1-1 draw] Our defense against Belgium was excellent. However, we lost after the quarter-finals. “This was further compounded by the injury absence of our first-choice goalkeeper Ali Raza, who did not play in the knockout stages.”
In a tightly contested first quarter, Tomas Ruiz and Arbaaz scored from penalty corners in the sixth and 12th minutes respectively.
Ruiz put Argentina ahead in the 21st minute by converting another drag flick, but Arbaaz had to respond five minutes later; This time by penalty stroke.
But Argentina came into full force in the third quarter and went ahead 4–2 with field goals from Ramiro Infanzón (39th) and Bautista Capurro (44th).
Arbaz completed his hat-trick from a penalty corner in the 49th minute, but goals from Ignacio Persoglio and Juan Fernandez in the 50th and 56th minutes eased the defeat for Pakistan.
Later on Saturday, Germany became champions for a record seventh time after defeating France 2-1 in the final.
Jules Verrier gave France the lead with a field goal in the 17th minute, but Germany equalized with a field goal from Jan Cordes in the 32nd minute, but Liam Holderman scored the decisive goal eight minutes later.
