Cuba awed by facilities

21/02/2002

CUBA conducted their first training session at the National Hockey Stadium
in Bukit Jalil yesterday and they were amazed with the facilities
available for the Malaysian team to train for the World Cup.
Back home, the artificial turf was only laid in 1998 and they only have
one for training and playing purposes.
"The stadium is so beautiful and the turf is excellent, the host team
must have had good training sessions here to prepare for the World Cup,"
said coach Guillermo Stakeman yesterday.
After a few minutes of hard running, the Cubans started their training
and they did look a little akward with the hockey stick. But after a
while, as the training got underway, one could see that they were here not
just to make up the numbers.
When asked about how he felt as the Cubans slated to play their first
match of the World Cup on Sunday morning against South Korea, the coach
just shrugged his shoulders and said: "We have not seen the Koreans play
for a long time so I do not know what to expect."
The last time the two teams met was in 1993 and the score was: Korea 2
Cuba 1.
The Cubans spent most of their training time practicing penalty corners,
and their flicker concentrated entirely on the right side of the
goalkeeper.
After training the Cubans sat and watched Argentina train, and Guillermo
asked some questions about the Malaysian team in his halting Spanish.
"You have been following Malaysia, so tell me a little about them," said
the coach.
When told that Malaysia beat India 2-1 and then drew 2-2 with Australia
in the Six-Nation, Guillermo was shocked.
"It must be a very good team then and we can expect some keen
competition from the hosts in Group B. But then again, they have such good
facilities so they must be very good," he said before hurrying off to
watch South Korea play a friendly against New Zealand at the second pitch.
"I must see how the Koreans play, it will be good for our preparations."
The entire Cuban team watched the Koreans play while Japan, Spain, South
Africa and Australia had their men focused on the match with a video-cam.
(END)