By Shazia Hasan
Wednesday, 27 Jan, 2010
KARACHI: Former Pakistan football team coach Tariq Lutfi has said that he wishes the Pakistan Under-23 team the best of luck in the South Asian Games and hopes that they will return victorious from the event.
Speaking to Dawn on Tuesday, the coach under whose guidance Pakistan beat India three times, and who coaches the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) team now, said that he has seen the boys in action recently and liked what he saw.
“Although they held PIA to a 1-1 draw during the practice match played at the Steel Town football field the other day, they also beat the KPT team by six goals before that. And this is the under-23 team and not the national team that we are talking about here,” said the most qualified coach of the country.
“I specifically requested to let PIA play the practice match with the team as I wanted to see them play myself. They are a good combination of players and can be expected to bring back the gold medal for a third consecutive time,” he added.
“Coach Kottan, too, has worked very hard on them. They had been practicing in camp for a while now and it is my experience as well as a fact that a team performs far better after the training load has been lifted from it. The fitness of the players too comes up after they are relieved from the pressure,” Lutfi analysed.
“It was unfortunate that the national team remained unlucky during their international exposures especially the recently-concluded SAFF Championship. But this team can do us proud if luck doesn’t come in their way again,” he said.
The eight-nation football event at the South Asian Games will see holders Pakistan facing India, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in Group ‘B’.
Meanwhile Group ‘A’ comprises Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.
Pakistan play their first match against Sri Lanka on Jan 11, second against Afghanistan on Jan 31 and third against India on Feb 2.
Pakistan have taken the title four times (1989, 1991, 2004 and 2006) already and are on a hat-trick this time around.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Aamir Gul, Bilal Rafiq.
Defenders: Mohammad Shahid, Haji Mohammad, Aurangzeb, Abbas Ali, Ali Ahsan, Mohammad Idrees.
Midfielders: Abdul Aziz, Atif Bashir, Mahmood Ali, Zubair Ahmed, Mohammad Wasim, Mohammad Adil.
Strikers: Jadid Khan Pathan, Arif Mahmood (captain), Asif Mahmood, Mohammad Rizwan, Adeem Shahzad.
Officals: George Kottan (coach), Shahzad Anwar, Asghar Khan Anjum (assistant coaches), Mohammad Aslam Khan (goalkeeping coach), Dr Kamran Mehdi (physiotherapist).
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