Abbas crushes Britain, Malaysia hold Dutch

Abbas crushes Britain, Malaysia hold Dutch
Agence France Presse

Sydney, September 18: Pakistan's penalty corner ace Sohail Abbas slammed the first hat-trick of the Olympic men's hockey to lift the former champions to a record 8-1 win over Great Britain here on Monday.

Malaysia also made their mark in Group A by holding the Netherlands to a goalless draw, while Germany scored twice in the last eight minutes to snatch a 2-1 win over Canada.

The Germans lead the group of death with six points from two games, followed by Pakistan and the Netherlands with four each. Canada and Malaysia have one point each while Britain are yet to open their account.

The top two teams from the group will qualify for the semi-finals.

Abbas, the 23-year-old Bank employee from Karachi, who was vilified by the Pakistani media after his side's 2-2 draw against Canada on Saturday, hit back with a vengeance.

Abbas scored twice within first 10 minutes to spark a goal spree which saw Pakistan pump in four goals in each half.

Mohammad Nadeem and Atif Bashir chipped in with two goals apiece and Mohammad Sarwar scored one as Pakistan recorded the largest victory margin in the current competition.

It was also Britain's worst Olympic defeat, surpassing their 7-0 rout by Australia at Tokyo in 1964.

Britain's Australia-born coach Barry Dancer described his team's performance as ``humiliating'', saying ``we were terrible in a number of areas.''

In contrast to Abbas' breathtaking display, Britain's own penalty expert Calum Giles failed to score even one goal.

Pakistani manager Islahuddin Siddiqui paid glowing tributes to his chief marksman, but stressed his was not a one-man team.

``Sohail is obviously our trump card,'' he said. ``We cannot lose with him in such form. But this match showed the others are capable of delivering as well. The flanks worked well and the midfield was always in the right position.

A distressed Dancer, however, said he was confident Britain would recover from the defeat before their next match against Malaysia on Wednesday.

``We have 48 hours to regroup, this team has recovered from such situations in the past, it can do that again, he said.

Malaysia defended stoutly against the Dutch to snatch their first point in the competition after losing to Germany 1-0 on Saturday.

The Dutch, who struggled to defeat Britain on the opening day, have themselves to blame after wasting nine penalty corners and 12 other shots at the goal.

Dutch coach Maurits Hendriks was annoyed that a goal by Stephen Veen late in the second-half was turned down by the umpire at the far end.

A protest by the Dutch was, however, turned down by the tournament's technical committee.

Canada, returning to the Olympics after 12 years, appeared set for an upset win against Germany when Bindi Kullar put them ahead with nine minutes to go. But the Germans drew level the next minute through Bjoern Michel, before Ulrich Moissl scored the winner two minutes before the end.