Great Britain got off to a cracking start to their Olympic hockey tournament with a goal in under two minutes from James Tindall in their match against Pakistan. But after the opening exchanges, Pakistan seemed to have control of the match and it was only the crossbar which stopped them scoring an early equaliser. Ten minutes into the match GB found the net for the second time but the umpire had already signalled for a penalty corner moments before. Great Britain’s second goal, when it came, was off the stick of Rob Moore, who finding himself in the narrowest of spaces on the edge of the circle, quickly took a stinging reverse stick shot through a pack of players, beating Salman Akbar in the Pakistan goal. With just over ten minutes of play left before the break, Ashley Jackson took GB’s tally to three with a fine penalty corner strike.
Those of us who remember Great Britain’s recent match against Pakistan in Dublin, where GB threw away a three goal lead, were starting to fear that we were witnessing a repeat when, ten minutes into the second half, Shakeel Abbasi deflected a pass into the GB net. Fifteen minutes later Matt Daly was dispossessed by Muhammad Waqas for him to score Pakistan’s second. With ten minutes left on the clock, Great Britain clung on against an increasingly confident Pakistan, but it was GB who were to call the last shots when a penalty corner strike rebounded off Salman Akbar and was fired into the goal by Matt Daly (pictured).
Final score 4-2 to GB and an excellent start to their campaign. Their next match will be against the Netherlands on Wednesday. The women play Argentina in the first match of the day tomorrow (Tuesday).
In the earlier match today, Germany comprehensively beat China after China had taken a seven minute lead.
The results of the remaining matches today and updated tables will appear on the Olympic pages of our main web site (www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk) later today.
