Malacca move closer to final

04/06/1998

OLAK .......... 5 ESA ......... 2
MALACCA MC .... 2 JOHOR SC .... 0
IT took a penalty corner hit by Nizam Ahmat and a spark of brilliance by
Zaharin Zakaria to help Malacca Municipal Council (MMC) take a commanding
2-0 lead over Johor Sports Council (JSC) in the National Junior League
Hockey semifinals first leg at the Taman Perbandaran Stadium in Bukit
Serindit, Malacca yesterday.
In the other other semifinal, Old La Sallians of Klang (Olak) took a
comfortable 5-2 first leg lead over Electrial Switchgear Automation (ESA)
at the Pandamaran Stadium.
MMC could have recorded a bigger margin win had they capitalised on the
nine penalty corners awarded to them compared to JSC's four.
Easily, MMC's best players were their 18-year-old skipper Chua Boon Huat
and Zaharin, 17.
Assisted by Mirizwan Nawawi, the younger brother of national player
Mirnawan, they were behind most of MMC's attacks.
JSC had to defend for most of the match as MMC pushed forward.
JSC could have taken the lead in the 10th minute had Nor Azman Mohamed
converted his penalty corner.
The second half saw the MMC dominating the attack with Zaharin Zakaria
continuously harrassing the JSC defence.
Zaharin, who played on the right flank, dazzled the home fans and the
JSC defenders with his dribbling skills.
When he was fouled in the 53rd minute, the umpire blew for a penalty
corner. Zahrin pushed the ball to Chua who made a neat pass to Nizam
Ahmat.
Nizam did not make any mistake when he launched a powerful shot from the
left to beat JSC keeper M. Khuzmir Mustaffar Kamar.
JSC pushed forward for the equaliser but their attack was easily broken
by MMC defenders.
MMC launched a counter-attack in the 62nd minute which saw S. Saravanan
passing to Zaharin who dribbled past a few defenders to extend the lead.
Olak took it very easy against ESA in their semifinal.
They took a comfortable 5-0 lead with about 20 minutes to go but let ESA
score two goals and keep alive their hope of making the final on Saturday.
Syayrim Uda Karim, the topscorer of the tournament with 18 goals, scored
in the 19th minute off a superb penalty corner setpiece to give Olak the
lead and in the 26th minute Mohamed Rajee took his time and hammered home
another setpiece.
Before these goals, the Olak players looked like they were not
interested in a win.
After the breather, Shahrizal Mastor made a fine run along the left
flank and tapped to an unmarked Mohamed Faizal.
Faizal drew ESA goalkeeper Najib Effendy out and flicked into goal in
the 45th minute.
Faizal got his name on the scoresheet again when he changed play to the
right and dribbled past three defenders and hammered home.
Syayrim scored his second and Olak's fifth a minute later.
ESA, who have consistently made the semifinals of the Junior League for
the past four years, replied through S. Devan in the 55th and 65th minutes
to close the gap for the second leg playoff at the Universiti Sains
Malaysia Stadium tomorrow.
ESA team manager S. Kali Kavandan looks at the return leg as a
challenge: "If we can score two goals past Olak on their own turf, I think
the boys can pull off an upset in the second leg," he said.
Tomorrow - s-final return leg: ESA v Olak (Universiti Sains Malaysia),
JSC v MMC (Tun Razak Stadium).
Sunday - Final: (Tun Razak Stadium).
* Note: All matches at 5:30.
(END)