Pakistan Beat Canada 6-2: Second Straight Win at Sultan of Johor Cup 2026

Pakistan’s junior hockey team made it two wins from two at the Sultan of Johor Cup 2026, thrashing Canada 6-2 at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium in Johor Bahru on Sunday in a rain-soaked encounter. Hamza Fayyaz opened the scoring from a penalty corner in the 9th minute, and five more goals followed as the green shirts — fresh from their 8-3 opening-day demolition of China — simply had too much firepower for the Canadians. Two goals in the final quarter, from Aasam Haider and Adeel, killed off a brief Canadian fightback and sealed a result that keeps Pakistan firmly on course for a first-ever title at this tournament. Next up: hosts Malaysia on October 21, the game everyone in the Pakistan camp has been circling since day one.

How the Goals Fell: Quarter by Quarter

First quarter: the perfect start (2-0)

Pakistan came out exactly as a team with 14 goals’ worth of confidence should. In the 9th minute, Hamza Fayyaz converted a penalty corner — the set piece that has become Pakistan’s favourite weapon at this tournament — and five minutes later Hamza Ali doubled the lead in the 14th minute. Two goals up inside a quarter, playing away from home, and the tone was set: Pakistan were not going to let Canada breathe.

Second quarter: Canada push back (3-2)

The second quarter is where this match briefly became a contest. Rana Abdullah Sami restored the cushion in the 25th minute with Pakistan’s third, but Canada hit back through Bhullar Gurnoor in the 30th minute. Suddenly it was 3-1, then 3-2 — and for a few minutes the green shirts looked like they had a real game on their hands.

Third quarter: Pakistan reassert control (4-2)

Rana Waleed steadied nerves in the 38th minute to make it 4-2, but Canada refused to fold — Abhiram Yogeshwaran pulled one back in the 45th minute. At 4-2 going into the final quarter, the match was alive, the rain was hammering down, and one more Canadian goal would have turned the whole evening upside down.

Final quarter: the kill (6-2)

Instead, Pakistan did what good teams do: they finished it. Aasam Haider struck in the 51st minute and Adeel added the sixth in the 54th, and the last six minutes were a formality. Two goals in the final quarter, under heavy rain, against a team that had just shown it could score — that is not padding a scoreline. That is game management from a side that knows exactly what it is doing.

Rain, Slush and Six Goals

The conditions deserve their own mention because they nearly turned this into a lottery. The match was played in heavy rain at Taman Daya, and anyone who has watched hockey in a downpour knows what that means: a slick, unpredictable surface, a heavier ball, and forwards slipping at exactly the wrong moment. Pakistan scored six in it. There is a particular kind of confidence a team develops when it can play its attacking game in conditions designed to destroy attacking games — and this squad seems to have it. Canada, to their credit, kept coming; two goals against a team on this kind of run is no disgrace.

Fourteen Goals in Two Games: What This Team Is Telling Us

Let’s put the numbers together. Eight against China in the opener — a result we covered in full — and now six against Canada. That is 14 goals in 120 minutes of hockey. More importantly, the goals are spread around: six different scorers against Canada, penalty corners working, field goals flowing. This is not a one-man team riding a hot striker; this is a unit with multiple ways to hurt you.

The core of this squad is the group that won bronze at the Junior Asia Cup and, in doing so, qualified Pakistan for next year’s Junior World Cup. Coach Syed Sameer has kept that nucleus together, and it shows in the way they respond to pressure — twice in this tournament they have conceded and twice they have answered with goals of their own rather than panic. PHF president Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani was quick to congratulate the team after the Canada win, and the federation will know as well as anyone what a first Sultan of Johor Cup title would mean for the sport’s revival narrative back home.

The Road to the Final: What Happens Next

The tournament format is simple and brutal: five teams — Pakistan, Canada, China, Malaysia and Japan — play a round robin, and the top two qualify for the final on October 24, with the third and fourth-placed teams contesting the bronze-medal game on the same day. Defending champions Australia are not participating this year, which opens the field — but also means Pakistan cannot hide behind anyone’s absence. Two wins from two has them sitting exactly where they need to be.

The game that decides everything, realistically, is October 21 against hosts Malaysia. The Pakistan camp has identified Malaysia as its main rivals, and the recent history backs that up: Pakistan beat them 5-2 in the group stage and 4-2 in the bronze-medal match at the Junior Asia Cup. Malaysia, playing at home, in front of their own crowd, will have been waiting for this one. Win that, and the final is essentially booked; lose it, and the arithmetic gets uncomfortable.

A Rivalry With a Future: Canada’s Return Visit

There is a nice symmetry to this result beyond the tournament. Canada’s hockey team is scheduled to tour Pakistan in February 2027 — a visit that carries real significance for international hockey’s return to Pakistan. The Canadians who walked off the Taman Daya turf after a 6-2 defeat will arrive in Lahore and Karachi next year knowing exactly what Pakistani hockey looks like at its sharpest. For Pakistan’s juniors, this 6-2 was the first chapter of a rivalry that continues on home soil in four months.

Why This Tournament Matters More Than It Looks

The Sultan of Johor Cup is an invitational, but for Pakistan it carries weight far beyond its official status. Pakistani hockey has spent years clawing its way back toward relevance — the Junior Asia Cup bronze and the Junior World Cup qualification were the first real milestones, and this tournament is the next test of whether that progress is real or a blip. A first-ever Sultan of Johor Cup title, won with 14 goals in the opening two games, would be the loudest possible answer.

There is also a human angle that numbers don’t capture. These are under-21 players — teenagers and very young men — playing high-pressure international hockey thousands of miles from home, in front of foreign crowds, in pouring rain, and winning. The composure they showed in that final quarter against Canada, with the game still theoretically alive at 4-2, is the kind of thing coaches spend careers trying to teach. If this generation holds together, Pakistani hockey’s long, painful rebuild may finally be producing something worth celebrating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bottom line: 6-2 against Canada, 8-3 against China, 14 goals in two games, six different scorers on Sunday, and a team that finished the job in the pouring rain. Pakistan’s juniors are two wins from two at the Sultan of Johor Cup and chasing a first-ever title. The only match that matters now is October 21 against hosts Malaysia — win that, and October 24’s final is theirs to lose. For Pakistani hockey, starved of good news for years, this generation is starting to feel like the real thing.