Wednesday, August 5, 2009

TBS scrape into semis

PERAK'S Anderson School will square off against Tunku Besar

Secondary School (TBSS) of Negri Sembilan in the semi-finals

of the Champions School hockey tournament at the Kuala Lumpur

HA stadium today.
Anderson topped group B as the only unbeaten team in the

tournament with 12 points, while TBSS drew 2-2 with Hamzah

Machang of Kelantan to end second in Group A.
The other semi-finals will be between Seberang Temerloh of

Pahang and Khir Johari of Kedah.
Yesterday, in their final pool match, Anderson beat Seksyen

II of Selangor 1-0: "We rested some of the key players, and

told the others to take it easy against Selangor because we

had already qualified for the semi-finals before the match.
"And since the semi-finals is tomorrow (today) it would

have been foolish to stress out the players anyway," said

Anderson team manager Asrul Izraai.
TBSS coach M. Vivekananda is looking for an upset:

"Anderson have yet to draw or lose a match in this tournament

so I expect a tough semi-finals. However, we will be looking

forward to improve on our semis target, and play in the

final."
The Anderson winner against selangor was delivered by

Sofian Kamaruddim (58th).
TBSS took the lead off Shahrir Ariff in the eight minute,

only to see it cancelled by Machang's Izhharuddin Zain in the

55th minute. The Negri school again took the lead in the 60th

minute off R. Satish, but a 70th minute strike by Nur

Badruzzaman saw they share points, but it was enough to take

Negri into the semi-finals.
Pahang's Seberang Temerloh went on a 6-2 rampage to shut

out Mutiara Impian of Penang from the semi-finals.
In the last match of the day, St John of Kuala Lumpur and

Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor played to a 3-3 draw, which gave

Khir Johari the bbreak they needed to play in the semis.
RESULTS: Group A -- Hamzah Machang (Kel) 2 Tunku Besar

Secondary School (Negri) 2, Mutiara Impian (Pg) 2 Seberang

Temerloh (Pah) 6.
GROUP B: Anderson (Pk) 1 Seksyen II (Sel) 0, Sultan Abu

Bakar (Joh) 3 St John (KL) 3.
TODAY: Semi-finals -- Seberang Temerloh (Pah) v Khir Johari

(Kedah) 5pm, Anderson (Pk) v Tunku Besar Secondary School

(Negri) 7pm.
Fifth-Eighth: Mutiara Impian (Pg) v Sultan Abu Bakar (Joh)

7am, St John (KL) v Hamzah Machang (Kel) 9am.
Ninth-10th: Armed Forces v Seksyen II (Sel) 3pm.

FINAL STANDINGS

GROUP A
P W D L F A Pts
PAHANG 4 3 0 1 12 4 9
NEGRI 4 2 1 1 12 5 7
PENANG 3 2 1 0 5 2 7
KELANTAN 4 1 2 1 3 8 5
ARMED FORCES 4 0 0 4 1 14 0


GROUP B

P W D L F A PTS
PERAK 4 4 0 0 14 2 12
KEDAH 4 2 0 2 7 8 6
K LUMPUR 4 1 1 2 10 13 4
JOHOR 4 1 1 2 6 11 4
SELANGOR 4 1 0 3 5 8 3