Malaysia ready to push back when shoved

20/07/2003

AFTER months of training and preparing for the big day, the Malaysian
hockey team is finally exuding an air of confidence unseen for a long
time.
The Champions Challenge starts today at the Randburg Hockey Stadium in
South Africa, and Malaysia have the unenviable task of starting their
campaign against the host country.
And the fact that South Africa are ranked 13th in the world while
Malaysia are 10th, will not count, as it is the norm for the host country
to plan the fixtures in a way that they play, who they perceive as the
weakest team, first.
The South Africans picked Malaysia as their first opponents because in
the last Champions Challenge in Malaysia, they beat us to reach the final.
Malaysia played a friendly against the South Koreans yesterday
(Thursday) and did the country proud by making a gallant comeback in the
last 10 minutes to hold the Olympic silver medallists 3-3 after trailing
1-3.
The young Malaysian players showed that they are ready to push back when
they are shoved.
Chief coach Paul Lissek used Jiwa Mohan, Chua Boon Huat and K. Keevan
Raj as a defensive midfield and, finally, strike trio Tajol Rosli, Ismail
Abu and Azlan Misron started receiving the ball more regularly.
Malaysia always had problems in midfield but it looks like Lissek has
finally found the right recipe.
South Korea's coach Jeon Jaeng Han, while impressed with the Malaysian
team's progress since the Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh in January, still feels
Malaysia will struggle in the tournament because they do not have the
physique to challenge the bigger built players from New Zealand and
England.
"Malaysia now have some very exciting and young forwards (Azli Misron,
Ismail Abu, Tajol Rosli and Azlan Misron) who are very skillful with the
ball. But they don't have the build and it will be very easy for big
defenders from Europe to shove them aside," said the experienced coach.
But on the Malaysian front, the morale is very high and it looks like
the opponents will have to bring out their best to shove aside our
`petite' strikers.
South Africa are resigned to the fact that they will finish in mid-
table, but they have set their sights on beating Malaysia in the opening
encounter.
England and New Zealand played a friendly yesterday and neither side
looked impressive in the 1-1 draw - a good sign for Malaysia.
Malaysia have beaten all five teams in the Challenge in the past, and
with South Korea targeting the Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur in September as
their No 1 goal for this year, a good finish can be expected from the
young Malaysians.
Skipper S. Kuhan made it clear that they will fight tooth-and-nail to
boost hockey's sagging fortunes.
"We have been training very hard for tomorrow (today) and my team-mates
are physically and morally very upbeat. This is a good chance for Malaysia
to break into the top-six bracket in the world and we are not going to let
it slip," said Kuhan.
(END)