Bangladesh's hockey weakness has become clear in the face of Pakistan's dominant hockey. Bangladesh lost the first match of the three-match series at the Maulana Bhashani Stadium by 8-2 goals. The same picture was seen in the second match today: the red-green team was devastated, this time the scoreline was 8-0.The hosts have crashed out of next year's World Cup hockey qualifiers after losing their first two matches. Pakistan, on the other hand, have secured a place in the qualifiers. The third match on November 16 is now just a formality.
No one dreamed that Bangladesh would make it to the World Cup qualifiers. It is not even worth seeing. The world rankings tell the difference. Pakistan is 14th, Bangladesh 29th. That gap is also clear on the field. Bangladesh wanted to gain experience by playing as well as possible in the series. That experience is the big achievement in the end.
Captain Rezaul Karim had hoped to make up for the mistakes of the first match and turn things around in the second match. But Pakistan's strength, ability, skill and technique were all at a very high level. So most of the time the ball was in Bangladesh's half, the match was completely one-sided. Bangladesh had no way of stopping the former Olympic and world champions. Pakistan brought variety to the game, and Bangladesh played in the same style. The difference became even more clear.
