Pakistan have won a match at the Hockey World Cup for the first time in sixteen years.
The Green Shirts beat Japan 4-3 on Saturday in a 9th-to-16th place classification match at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen (Geo News).
It is their first World Cup victory since a 2-1 win over Spain in 2010.
How it was won
It did not begin well. Japan scored twice in the first quarter through Hyota Yamada and Kaito Tanaka.
Rana Waheed Ashraf pulled one back in the second quarter to make it 2-1 at half-time. Two minutes into the third quarter Ashraf struck again, and Muhammad Hammadudin scored a minute later to put Pakistan ahead 3-2.
Japan responded almost immediately through Koji Yamasaki to level at 3-3.
Hannan Shahid scored what proved the winner in the 40th minute. Neither side scored again.
The context that the result sits in
This was a classification match, and it is worth being clear about what that means.
Pakistan are at their first World Cup after an eight-year absence, having failed to qualify in 2014 and finished the 2018 edition winless. In this tournament’s main round they lost to England, lost to India, and drew 3-3 with Wales — one point from three matches, and elimination before the knockout stage.
The Japan win therefore places them somewhere between ninth and sixteenth, not in contention.
Why it counts anyway
Pakistan have won the Hockey World Cup four times, more than any other country. The gap between that record and a sixteen-year wait for a single group-stage or classification win is the whole story of the sport’s decline in the country.
A 4-3 win over Japan in a placement match does not reverse it. It does end a specific and painful sequence, and it was won from 2-0 down by a side that had lost its two previous matches.
