Islamabad-Punjab Blues set final clash against KP Colours after defeating their opponents in the 1st National U-18 Hockey Championship semifinals played here at the Naseer Bunda International Hockey Stadium on Tuesday.
It was a truly remarkable first semifinal between both Punjab teams on offer. The pack-to-capacity crowd was entertained with top class hockey. Punjab Blues were hot favourites to win the semifinal against Punjab Colours, which displayed remarkable performance, especially Ali Aziz exhibited excellent stick work and scored a brace for the losers but his heroics couldn’t save his team’s blushes.
Olympians Shahnaz Sheikh, Naveed Alam, Kamran Ashraf, Rasheed Junior, M Irfan, tournament director Col (R) Ahmed Nawaz Malik, secretary Ramzan Jamali, Punjab Hockey Association (PHA) secretary Col Asif Khokhar along with others were also present during both the semifinals.
Punjab Colours started the semifinal campaign brilliantly and took a commanding 2-0 lead. Ali Aziz scored his first goal in the 22nd minute while he stepped up again to score his second goal in the 32nd minute to provide Punjab Colours 2-0 lead. But their joy shortlived as Punjab Blues bounced back in style and scored a smashing goal through Wasim Akram in the 35th minute to reduce the margin to 2-1 and then Ali scored in the 43rd minute to square the things.
Both the teams created a number of golden chances, but to no avail and just when it seemed the match fate would be decided on plenty shootouts, Punjab Colours hearts were broken as Blues staged remarkable comeback through Ilyas who scored a killer blow in the 57th minute to land him team home safely with 3-2 unbeatable lead.
In the second semifinal, KP Colours managed to prevail on spirited Punjab Whites 5-1 on plenty shootouts. KP Colours must consider themselves lucky to enter the final, as despite missing at least half a dozen simple goal-scoring chances in the match, they managed to beat Punjab Whites. It was purely world-class goalkeeping by the Punjab Whites’ goalie, who saved at least 8 to 10 goals, which made the difference.
Punjab Whites took the lead in the second minute of the first quarter through Waqas Ali, who scored a stunner. After that, KP completely dominated proceedings and created a lot of chances, but their strikers failed to take advantage. It was the brilliance of Zakir, who scored a breathtaking reverse hockey goal to beat Punjab goalie, who was outstanding in the match. KP were playing entire four quarters in the Punjab’s half and despite having a series of chances, which came their way thick and fast, they failed to capitalize.
Punjab Whites were favourite to win the plenty shootout, as they had truly outstanding goalkeeper, but it was Punjab plenty shootout takers, who let themselves and goalie down, as they failed to convert even a single plenty. After missing the first plenty shootout, KP players managed to score on all the remaining four plenty shootouts. One thing is quite certain that kids had the talent, but coaching staff and the managers didn’t have any knowledge of utilising the substitutes, as both managers failed to make even a single substitute in all the four quarters. The third position match between Punjab Whites and Punjab Colours.