THERE is no room for mistakes in the six-week TNB- Malaysia Hockey League (MHL), and fitness could well decide who gets their hands on the three silverware up for grabs starting today.Tenaga Nasional and Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) will square off in the Charity Shield at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil tonight, and the losing team could well find themselves in a tight spot.
“This is a very short League and so we can’t afford to drop any points as there is no return leg like last season.
“Also, we will playing back-to-back matches and fitness would come into play in the first week itself,” said KLHC skipper Azlan Misron.
Azlan is a national trainee, but was left out of the Asian Champions Trophy, and so he is ready for the League unlike Tenaga Nasional skipper Madzli Ikmar.
“I just returned from Ordos (Asian Champions Trophy) two days ago and after playing some highly competitive matches, I do feel a little tired.
“However, hockey is a team sport and I believe my team- mates are ready to give their best in the Charity Shield which comes with three valuable points,” said Madzli.
There are nine national trainees in Tenaga while KLHC have the equal number.
The other teams in the Premier Division are Maybank. Sapura, UiTM, UniKL, Yayasan Negri Sembilan, Armed Forces and Nur Insafi.
There are only five teams in Division One and they are Ipoh City Hall , SSTMI-Thunderbolt, Bukit Jalil Sports School, Uniten and UNIMAP.
The development side in the MHL is UniKL, who have been the front runners in grooming players, but have suffered a high turn-over.
UniKL team manager Amir Azhar said: “We are only three years old, and the turn over had been very high because other clubs can offer them more cash.
“However, we are not too worried, as we have eleven Project 2013 players in the squad, and they will be beefed up by four former national trainees, former national S. Sel varaju and also five national under-18 players.”
UniKL lost three influential players in Amir Farid to Tenaga, Mohamed Syamim to KLHC after the conclusion of the last Junior Hockey League and last season’s JHL top scorer Mohamed Zulhairi to Maybank.
Sapura, Yayasan Negri Sembilan and UiTM will be fielding foreign players, but it looks like KLHC and Tenaga are going to share the Charity Shield, League title and TNB-Cup this year.
TODAY: Division One -- Uniten v Ipoh City Hall (Tun Razak 5pm), BJSS v UNIMAP (Education Ministry, 8pm).
Premier League -- (Charity Shield): KL Hockey Club v Tenaga Nasional (National Hockey Stadium, 8pm).
TOMORROW: Division One -- SSTMI-Thunderbolt v Uniten (Education Ministry, 5pm), Ipoh City Hall v BJSS (Azlan Shah Stadium, 5pm).
Premier League: Armed Forces Airod v Sapura (National Stadium, 4pm), Uitm v UniKL (National Stadium, 6pm), Nur Insafi Penang v Yayasan Negri Sembilan (National Stadium, 8pm).
