| Pakistan on the brink of elimination
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September 5th, 2007
Pakistan 3 Malaysia 3
Three-time Asia Cup champions are almost out of the Asia Cup after they threw away a 3-0 lead and allowed Malaysia to draw 3-3 in their Pool A match here on Wednesday.
After the draw with Malaysia, Pakistan is on seven points while Malaysia tops the Pool with ten points. Japan, the third team in contention for a semi-final place is on six points but have a match against Singapore in hand on Thursday. Japan who had beaten Pakistan 3-1 in an earlier Pool A match are expected to beat Singapore and go to nine points which would send Pakistan home and deprive them of a semi-final place.
Pakistan coach Islahuddin blamed the umpiring and criticized the awarding of a penalty stroke to Malaysia in the 69th minute that enabled Malaysia to draw the match.
Shakeel Abassi scored in the 17th and 26th minute to give Pakistan a 2-0 lead and put Malaysia under pressure. With two minutes left in the first half, Akhtar Ali increased the lead to 3-0.
It almost seemed curtains for Malaysia.
But they fought back in the second half. In the 43rd minute, Tajuddin cut the scores to 1-3. They suffered a set-back in the 55th minute when Jiwa Mohan was shown the yellow card but despite playing with ten men, they created chances and managed to put Pakistan on the defensive.
In the 57th minute, Tajuddin once again scored with a deflection in the striking circle.
With just two minutes to go, Malaysia entered the Pakistan striking circle and earned a penalty stroke. The umpire Chen Dekang from China gave the stroke for blocking a Malaysian player from taking the hit.
Megat fired in neatly to the right of Salman Akkbar to tie the scores and enable Malaysia to top the Pool for the first time in Asia Cup history.
Malaysian coach and former captain Sarjit Singh was extremely happy with the result. “I was worried after they took a 3-0 lead but it’s good to see my players not giving up. Two yellow cards definitely contributed to Pakistan getting the goals in the first half but later I told the players to keep going and they got the goals.”
Score Sheet:
Shakeel Abassi (17th, FG) 1-0
Shakeel Abassi (26th, FG) 2-0
Akhtar Ali (33rd, FG) 3-0
Ahmad Tajuddin (43rd, FG) 1-3
Ahmad Tajuddin (57th, FG) 2-3
Megat Azrafiq (69th, PS) 3-3
| Schedule |
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Final Standings :
1. India
2. S Korea
3. Malaysia
4. Japan
5. China
6. Pakistan
7. Bangladesh
8. Hong Kong
9. Sri Lanka
10. Singapore
11. Thailand
Sunday's Matches  |
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| TEAM A | TEAM B | Playoff | TIME | RESULT | |||
| S Lanka | SPore | 9/10 | 08:00 | 6-0 | |||
| Ban | HKG | 7/8 | 07:00 | 3-1 | |||
| China | Pak | 5/6 | 09:30 | 3-2 | |||
| Malaysia | Japan | 3/4 | 16:00 | 5-3 | |||
| India | S Korea | 1/2 | 18:30 | 7-2 | |||
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Saturday's Matches |
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| TEAM A | v | TEAM B | TIME | RESULT | |||
| Singapore | v | Thailand | 08:00 | 4-0 | |||
| Pak | v | Ban | 07:00 | 10-0 | |||
| China | v | HongKong | 09:30 | 6-1 | |||
| S Korea | v | Malaysia | 17:00 | 2-1 | |||
| India | v | Japan | 19:30 | 4-1 | |||
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SCORE TABLE |
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| POOL A | |||||||
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | PTS |
| Malaysia SF | 4 | 3 | 1 | 26 | 4 | 10 | |
| Japan SF | 4 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 9 | |
| Pakistan | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 7 | 7 |
| Hong Kong | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 28 | 3 | |
| Singapore | 4 | 4 | 2 | 27 | 0 | ||
| POOL B | |||||||
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | PTS |
| India SF | 5 | 5 | 46 | 2 | 15 | ||
| S Korea SF | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 8 | 10 |
| China | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 32 | 6 | 10 |
| Bangladesh | 5 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 22 | 6 | |
| Sri Lanka | 5 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 46 | 3 | |
| Thailand | 5 | 5 | 1 | 67 | 0 | ||
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 A team should be ready to play anyone. Of course, more |
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