Daily Times

KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has hired two new coaches – a penalty corner specialist and goalkeeping expert – to prepare for the FIH Champions Trophy that is set to be held from June 23 in the Netherlands. The head coach of Pakistan hockey, Roelant Oltmans, says Pakistan hope to finish at a better spot than last time as they will be competing against the top teams in the world at the event and to prepare for that, the team will be getting the services of two specialist coaches.

Oltmans, who was speaking after the last phase of the training camp in Karachi, revealed that former penalty corner specialist Bram Lomans and Dutch goalkeeper coach Dennis Federpaug have joined the team and will be with them till World Cup.

“We are preparing for the Champions Trophy right now but our goal is Asian Games and then the World Cup,” Oltmans said. “We saw in the last international tournament that we played with a dynamic attacking style and created a number of opportunities, but were not able to convert the penalty corners into goals.” He added: “We have to improve our conversion rate and for that the coaches have been hired who will make this team stronger.”

Talking about the fitness of the players he said that the players had become mentally and physically stronger. “The players become strong during the training camp in Abbottabad and I am glad that they have come here after resting but their fitness level was the same. They are now stronger physically and mentally and we are confident that they will give tough time to the teams,” he said. Talking about the game against India in the Champions Trophy he said, “India is not the only team in Champions Trophy. We have four other teams too. No doubt the fans in Pakistan will cheer us if we beat India, but we will to give our all against other teams as well.”

Published in Daily Times, May 22^nd 2018.