Juniors put up good show

26/06/2003

THE national juniors came out snapping at the heels of the seniors in a
friendly held between the two teams in preparation for the Champions
Challenge in Randburg, South africa on July 19-27.
The match, which was abandoned after 35 minutes because of a heavy
downpour while the seniors were leading 2-1, showed that national juniors
coach Sarjit Singh has only to fine-tune on set-pieces as his players have
mastered the basics.
A joy to watch was Ismail Abu's reverse stick shot which went crashing
into the top netting; even catching national No 1 goalkeeper Roslan
Jamaluddin by surprise. Both the seniors goals were scored by Fairuz Ramli
- soft touches let in by goalkeeper Ahmad Bazli who looked like he had too
much of respect for the senior strikers.
Sarjit had the luxury of fielding four juniors who are training with the
seniors - Azlan Misron, Ismail, P. Prabahkaran and Jivan Mohan - and they
helped keep the ball at the other end.
"The juniors have grown in confidence and this augurs well for the
future of Malaysian hockey. Now we have a bigger pool of players to select
from for national duty," said chief coach Paul Lissek.
Sarjit was brimming with confidence after his first test.
"This is the first time the juniors have played as a team for the past
six months, but they showed good team work. I am very happy with the
forwards and midfield but I am a little worried with the defence.
"Sallehin (Ghani) and Megat Azrafiq were not available for the match
today (yesterday) and Bazli let in two soft goals. I will have to brush up
the defence before we compete in the World Youth Festival in Poznan
(Poland)," said Sarjit.
The juniors will play another friendly against the seniors today and
Sarjit will have the full squad, but tomorrow, Lissek will take over seven
juniors knocking on the doors of the Champions Challenge for the final
friendly match.
(END)