BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan’s hockey team head coach Siegfried Aikman put the blame for the team’s defeat against New Zealand in the  Commonwealth Games on the lack of time to fully recover from the previous game. 

Aikman claimed that the team’s attacking strategy against New Zealand backfired as the players did not get ample time to recover from the match against South Africa just a day earlier.

“Our aim was to play very attacking. We saw opportunities after analyzing New Zealand and our match. In our wish to attack we neglected that we played the day before and that we might not have fully recovered.” wrote Aikman in a thread posted on his Twitter account.

The national hockey team has so far remained unimpressive in their Commonwealth campaign as they lost 1-4 against New Zealand following a 2-2 draw against South Africa in their first encounter.

Head coach Aikman further stated that the team lagged in their attack and made too many unforced errors in passing while claiming that it was necessary for the team to be physically stronger in order to play an attacking game against physical fit teams.

“We were unable to score and just before the end they scored the last goal. Conclusion we played an attacking match when possible but to do so against physical fit teams we need to be physically stronger,” he said.

“Players were not fully recovered from the SA match and made to many unforced errors in passing and receiving we also had problems with tactical decision making. We have 2 days to recover and to prepare for the Scotland match.” he added.

Aikman expressed hope that the team would perform well in their next game against Scotland on August 3 and demonstrate what they had learnt so far from the previous matches.

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