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Malaysia face must-win match against S. Africa



KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia may have gone great guns in the group phase of the Champions Challenge I but it is the quarter-final match against South Africa today which will define their tournament in Quilmes, Argentina.

For the first time in many years the national hockey team are playing consistently well in a tournament, having won all three group matches to top the table.
Malaysia, who are ranked 13th in the world, completed their group fixtures on Tuesday with an impressive 4-2 win over Canada.

It was their third straight win in the group, having earlier defeated Poland 4-0 and world No. 7 and favourites South Korea 4-2.

But all that will mean nothing if Malaysia were to lose to South Africa in today’s quarter-finals.
A loss will see them featuring in the fifth to eight placing playoffs while a win will take them into the semi-finals – and a better placing than their last outing in 2011.

But the national team this time seem capable of doing something spectacular.
As it is, they have scored four goals in each of the three group matches while conceding just four – something of a rarity for the national hockey team.

Against Canada, defender Mohd Razie Abdul Rahim gave Malaysia the lead off a penalty stroke. Then, Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin scored a field goal, followed by a goal each from the Saari brothers of Faizal and Fitri.

Canada got theirs though Keegan Pereira and Matt Guest.
Team manager George Koshy said that national coach Paul Revington’s training methods and strategy seems to be working wonders.

“Revington only had a month’s training with the national team and the players have been responding well to his instructions. It looks like the players understand Revington’s methods.
“This augurs well for the future of the national team. The players have been improving with each match too,” he said in a telephone interview.

George also said that the players were in high spirits and all fired up for the match against South Africa.

“South Africa are a strong team ... they finished 11th in the London Olympics and are ranked one step higher than us. So, we’re not going to have it easy against them,” he said.

“Our matches against them have always been close and it won’t be any different this time.
“The players have vowed to give their best against South Africa and qualify for the semi-finals. We want to finish better than the fifth placing we achieved in South Africa last year.”



THE STAR

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