Ace forward Mohammad Nadeem Alam will lead Pakistan in the men's hockey competition at the Athens Olympics.

"We have a very balanced team and will do our best to bring Olympic glory back to Pakistan," team coach Roelant Oltmans said.

"The recent European tour has helped us find weak areas and after having worked on them I am confident that we will come out of the death group with difficult teams for the semi-final," Oltmans said.

Pakistan is in the tougher of the two groups alongside World champions Germany, Asian champions South Korea, Spain, Egypt and Great Britain.

Group B has defending Olympic champions the Netherlands, India, Australia, Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand.

Pakistan finished third in the Olympic qualifying rounds held in Madrid, Spain in March this year.

Pakistan, winners of Olympic gold medals in 1960, 1968 and 1984, have seen their hockey form slump in recent years.

Their last Olympic medal was a bronze in the 1992 Barcelona Games. They finished fifth in Atlanta in 1996 and fourth in Sydney in 2000.

The team: Ahmed Alam and Salman Akbar (goalkeepers), Sohail Abbas, Zeeshan Ashraf, Ali Reza, Ghazanfar Ali, Waseem Ahmed, Dilawar Hussain, Adnan Maqsood, Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan, Mohammad Nadeem (captain), Kashif Jawwad, Mohammad Shabbir, Tariq Aziz.

Coach: Roelant Oltmans.