‘Players weren’t fully recovered from SA match’ Pakistan hockey coach
BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan hockey team head coach Siegfried Aikman blamed the team’s loss against New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games on a lack of time to fully recover from the previous game.
Aikman claimed that the team’s attacking strategy against New Zealand failed as the players did not have enough time to recover from the match against South Africa just a day earlier.
“Our goal was to play very attacking. We saw opportunities after analyzing New Zealand and our game. In our desire to attack we forgot that we played the day before and that we might not have fully recovered”. Aikman wrote in a thread posted on his Twitter account.
Our goal was to play very attacking. We saw opportunities after analyzing New Zealand and our game. In our desire to attack we forget that we played the day before and that we might not have fully recovered.
— Siegfried Aikman (@SiggyAikman) August 1, 2022
The national hockey team has so far remained unimpressive in their Commonwealth campaign, losing 1-4 to New Zealand after drawing 2-2 against South Africa in their first meeting.
Head Coach Aikman further stated that the team lagged behind in their offense and made too many unforced errors in passing while stating that it was necessary for the team to be physically stronger to play an attacking game against physically fit teams.
“We couldn’t score and just before the end they scored the last goal. Conclusion, we play an attacking game when possible, but to do it against teams in good physical shape we need to be stronger physically”, he said.
“The players didn’t fully recover from the SA match and made a lot of unforced errors passing and receiving, we also had problems with tactical decision making. We have 2 days to recover and prepare for the Scotland game.” he added he.
Aikman expressed his hope that the team will perform well in their next match against Scotland on August 3 and show what they have learned from previous matches so far.
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