ANTWERP (BELGIUM): World champions Australia displayed their prowess in a 6-1 drubbing of Pakistan in the preliminary league of the hockey World League Semifinals at the KHC Dragons Stadium here.
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Pakistan will now take on India on June 26 in what promises to be a cracking encounter.
Born in Bengaluru, Raghuprasad started officiating worldwide matches in 2003 where he was the umpire during a match, again played between Australia and Pakistan at Perth in 2003.
There remains some palpable tension between the teams over that incident, but tomorrow both the side would seek to showcase the attractive sub-continental style of hockey.
Pakistan, with a 2-1 win over Poland in their previous outings, now head into tomorrow’s contest against India.
Australian player Govers scored another goal on a corner in last quarter. “We don’t know them very well so that’s one of our plans in the next 24 hours, to make sure everyone is on top of their players and who goes where”.
“We want to win against Pakistan ahead of the game against World champions Australia the next day”, said Sardar.
For coach van Ass, to be a part of an Indo-Pak contest comes as a completely new experience. “It’s going to be my first experience of a Pakistan-India hockey encounter. But during the 2010 World Cup in Delhi, I saw the excitement it causes”, said Van Ass, an ex- Dutch national coach.
“The young boys always give lots of energy”, he said.
In last battle of traditional rivals, Pakistan team thrashed Indian team by 4-3 in previous Champions Trophy. Then we got one up and we took our foot off the pedal and, against a team like this, you can’t do that.
It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan need to finish the tournament with a slot in top three to qualify for Olympics 2016.
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