Pakistan hitman Sohail Abbas gunned down Ireland in the UCD Four Nations final on Saturday — but then insisted he’s never seen Paul Revington’s side in better nick.
Ireland gave up too many penalty corners in front of a rare-super-charged full house at the National Hockey Stadium, and Abbas slung in two bullet drag-flicks either side of a similar stunner from tournament top goalscorer John Jermyn in a 2-1 win for the Asian outfit.
But Abbas nonetheless had words of encouragement for the Irish: “They are really improving and it’s the first time I’ve seen them playing this good. I think they’ll do something in the European Cup.”
Ireland goalkeeper David Harte walked away with a deserved player of the tournament award, having held out Abbas and Muhammad Imran until midway through the second half in the decider.
“There’s a lot of respect (when you face someone like Abbas),” said Harte. “But you look forward to it, it’s not every day you play against a world record holder,” he said. “There are massive positives, coming close against Pakistan twice. We’re moving in the right direction.”
There’s no respite for Ireland in the coming days; they play Egypt four times and China once in friendlies at UCD this week before flying to Lille on Saturday for the eight-day Champions Challenge II tournament.
Meanwhile, Ireland senior women’s coach Gene Muller admitted his side were left with a “bittersweet” feeling after losing the 5th/6th place playoff to South Africa 2-1 despite putting in another quality performance.
The girls in green went behind to a Sulette Damons reverse only for Nikki Symmons to convert a switched corner. But another world record goalscorer, Pieree Coetzee slung a drag-flick into Emma Gray’s top corner for the winner.
t was a tough end to a largely positive tournament as Muller’s side won three times against higher world ranked opposition and finished up one place on their pre-tournament ranking.
“I’ve mixed feelings about it. Finishing sixth is disappointing but to have played in the fashion we have in this tournament, I have to take that,” said Muller, whose side nonetheless beat their pre-tournament seeding by one place.
“You’re always chasing the performance and it was really good today. We didn’t lose many individual battles, matched them tactically and in certain areas I thought we outplayed South Africa.”
Scotland saw off Spain on penalty strokes to take bronze following a thrilling 3-3 tie, while Japan came from two goals down to see off USA 3-2 in a thrilling final to take overall honours.
**For more detailed match reports please check out Stephen Findlater’s superior coverage on The Hook. SFH owes him and Tristan Seaton-Stedham a huge debt of gratitude once again for providing the superb live stream that allowed me to report on the tournaments as if present, (despite being stuck in an office in Cork) as well as compliling quotes and providing excellent Twitter updates, as did the IHA.
Hi Alan sorry to hear to hear that you are considering discontinueing the hockey website. I thouroughly enjoyed your reporting on the matches and was the first sites that I would visit to get reports on matches.I wish you well on what ever you propose to do.Will miss it very much if that is what you intend to do bye John