Johor and KL final

30/10/2002

THE National Juniors played the match of their lives, but lack of
experience saw them losing 6-3 to Kuala Lumpur in the semi-finals of the
Razak Cup at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil last night.
Johor beat Perak 2-1 in the other semi-finals but are expected to play
for the silver on Wednesday as KL will be difficult to beat.
Seventy minutes of entertaining hockey was played by a determined
Juniors side, with patches of brilliance which caught the more experienced
Kuala Lumpur side with their pants down.
But with former skipper Nor Saiful Zaini and current international Amin
Rahim at the backline, and Roslan Jamaluddin between the posts, the young
strikers faced a daunting task of getting into the semi-circle.
Kuala Lumpur scored a soft goal in the fifth minute after Chua Boon Huat
dribbled past three defenders and passed the ball to an unmarked Nishel
Kumar to catch goalkeeper Hanafi Hassan off his position.
The Juniors never let up the pressure and their forays into the KL semi-
circle became bolder, and only the lack of experience stood between them
and the equaliser.
And in the 14th minute, Chua scored KL's second and the fans who got the
impression that the match was over, were shocked to see the fighting
spirit displayed by the Juniors.
Good passing between Jiva Mohan and P. Prabhakaran took the ball deep
into the KL semi-circle but Roslan stood his ground and palmed the ball
dangerously, resulting in a penalty corner.
Juniors perfected a suberb set-piece and the ball was deflected in by
Fakhrulrazi Baharuddin in the 32nd minute.
With the gap narrowed, the Juniors came back after the breather fighting
and every time a Kuala Lumpur player got the ball, three Juniors were on
hin in a flash.
In the entire match, the Juniors only made three backpasses because they
were busy moving upfront, even when they were 6-2 down.
KL took the opportunity of an understrengthed Juniors backline to score
their third goal off the run.
This time, Fairus Ramli did the damage in the 45th minute. And three
minutes later, the Juniors were in deeper trouble when Tajol Rosli scored
a reverse stick goal.
The Juniors kept pushing and in the 49th minute, they again narrowed the
gap to 4-2 with a field goal from Fairuz Hamsani.
KL, with the entire national team in their stable, kept their cool and
surged ahead with goals from M. Kaliswaran (62nd) and Tajol (65th).
And as the horn blew, the Juniors were awarded a penalty corner which
was converted by Redzuan Nasir for a final score of 6-3.
KL HA president Tan Sri Noordin Hassan, who sat at the bench in the
capacity of team manager, praised the young boys.
"They played extremely well today (yesterday). Their fitness level was
excellent and they played well as a team," said Noordin.
National Juniors coach Stephen van Huizen was still not happy with their
fitness level, but praised them for playing an excellent match eventhough
the odds were heavily stacked against them.
"They played well as a team, but towards the last 10 minutes, they
looked a bit tired and I will work to improve their fitness," said
Stephen.
There was consensus among the officials and fans who watched the match,
that the National Juniors are an exciting side and many can't wait for
them to grow up.
In the second semi-finals, Johor overcame a gritty Perak side 2-1
eventhough they did not play as well as they did in the group matches.
The Johor goals were scored by Arul Selvaraj (12th) and Lee Sien Lam
(38th) who converted a penalty stroke after Perak player K. Gobinathan
made a dangerous clearance while defending a penalty corner.
Johor's Saiful Azli handed Perak their goal on a silver platter when he
kicked the ball in the semi-circle and the umpire awarded Perak a penalty
corner which was converted by Abdul Hadi Adam in the 47th minute.
RESULTS
SEMI-FINALS
K LUMPUR 6 NAT JUNIORS 3
JOHOR 2 PERAK 1 CLASSIFICATION MATCHES
PENANG 2 KEDAH 1
PAHANG 3 SELANGOR 1
N SEMBILAN 2 MALACCA 1
(END)