Buck up Team Pakistan, or the Australians will cream you!

We support and love our cricketers who always seek rewards from us but not our golden hearted hockey players.

Pakistan won its group match against the Republic of South Africa (RSA) yesterday which, on paper, was supposed to be a walk in the park for the green shirts. This is because RSA is a new addition to the top hockey paying comity of nations - one which had been dominated by Pakistan in the sixties, seventies and up until the mid eighties.

We played with true grit and determination in patches and lucky for us that they were the ones that counted. Even after falling behind on two separate occasions, our forwards managed to keep the pressure on and create opportunities for the players to keep scoring. In the end, it was the once forgotten 'old horses' that came through yet again, this time in the form of Waseem Ahmed.

[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYeWIv5HcYg]]

Here I would like to point out our frailties in the back line and of course our last defender of the bastion (the Goal Keeper). Pretty ordinary, right? Unless they have a seriously good game against Australia, our goose is pretty much cooked. I have been saying for long that we don't know how to tackle the good hockey playing nations like Great Britain as they have had the better of us now on so many occasions. Let’s take heart from the Argentina-Australia match earlier where the mighty Australians were held to a draw.

So maybe now we can count on a chance after having beaten Argentina.

As far as the match goes it was open modern hockey and was played in the right spirits. For a change, our forward line kept the pressure going on the opposing team. The match burst into flames after RSA scored the fourth goal and at that point, well I thought that was that for us.

It was here we saw our team display a never-back-down spirit and took the match in its hands and turned the tables for a victorious end.

What we desperately need is some financial and moral backing for our golden hearted warriors as they toil away for the love of the nation unlike many of our cricketers who, regardless of trying to always seek handsome rewards, bag all the love and attention from us Pakistanis.

Come on people it’s time to come forward and support hockey in all ways possible. Our team needs to know that we are here no matter what and we applaud their efforts and all the hard work they have put into Olympics 2012.

Well done Team Hockey Pakistan; despite the odds you did extremely well. Now go and conquer the Australians!

Read more by Brig Ayaz here.