By our correspondent
KARACHI: Pakistan have shifted their football camp to Islamabad form Lahore in order acclimatise themselves to the sort of environment that they would be facing in the Chinese city of Guangzhou during the Asian Games.
“Yes, we shifted the camp to Islamabad on Tuesday where the weather is quite chilly,” coach Akhtar Mohiuddin told ‘The News’ on Wednesday. The team is staying at the Islamabad Sports Complex hostel and will fly out for China from here on November 4. Pakistan have been placed in Group F with Thailand, Oman and Maldives. The Greenshirts will face Thailand in their group opener on November 7, followed by their matches against Maldives on November 9 and Oman on November 11. All the matches will be held under floodlights.
Akhtar has planned three practice matches against the local teams in the federal capital. “We plan to play matches against Islamabad Combined XI, former national champions Army and another local team featuring several foreign players who are studying in the different varsities in the federal capital,” he said.
German-Turkish Pakistani defender Atif Bashir Qureshi is likely to join the team within a day or two. Surprisingly, the coach Akhtar and the secretary of the PFF also mentioned the name of another foreign player Reis Ashraf who according to them will also join the team but his name is not included in the list provided to this correspondent by the PSB.