Friday, February 4, 2011

Chua Boon Huat to the rescue

KUALA LUMPUR Hockey Club (KLHC) will be banking on veteran striker Chua Boon Huat (pic) to do the damages against Maybank in the Premier Division of the malaysia Hockey League today.
Chua, 30, has been in super form to outshine his more younger team-mates by scoring 10 out of KLHC’s 47 goals to keep his team at the top of the standings.
He represented the country for 11 years, and earned 306 caps after making his international debut in the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games. His last international outing was in the 2009 Champions Challenge II tournament in Ireland.
When asked if he is willing to don national colours again: “I am still fit and have proven myself in the MHL, but I don’t think I will receive a national training recall because of certain reasons which I don’t want to talk about.”
However, he is still in his prime and ready to help his club win the League title.
“We are in a good position to win the league title, provided we do not drop points in the remaining matches. It will not be easy, but I will give my best in every match,” said Chua.
KLHC coach K. Dharmaraj described the Maybank match as crucial, but not necessarily easy.
“It is never easy playing a team like Maybank, who have some good seniors and upcoming juniors in their side. I will plan to maintain our winning streak, but it would be foolish to take matters easy against Maybank,” said Dharmaraj.
KLHC have some of the best players in the country like Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin, Azlan Misron, Kelvinder Singh and Ismail Abu to feed their hit-man Chua, who is expecetd to deliver again against Maybank today.
Second placed Yayasan Negri Sembilan are only four points adrift of KLHC, and if they beat Sapura today, they have a realistic chance of wresting the title from the leaders as teams have five more matches to play after this weekend before the champion is decided.
FIXTURES -- Premier Division: Today: Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club v Maybank (3.30pm), Yayasan Negri Sembilan v Sapura (5.15pm), Armed Forces-Airod v UniKL (7pm), UiTM v Nur Insafi (8.45pm).
* All matches at the Tun Razak Stadium.
Tomorrow: UiTM v Sapura (Tun Razak Stadium, 4pm), Nur Insafi v UniKL (Tun Razak Stadium, 6pm), Yayasan Negri Sembilan v Tenaga Nasional (Tun Razak Stadium, 8pm), Armed Forces-Airod v Maybank (KLHA, 5pm).
Tomorrow: Division One: Bandar Penawar Sports School v Ipoh City Hall (Bandar Penawar, 5pm), Malacca City Council v Armed Forces Juniors (Malacca, 5pm), Universiti Sains Malaysia v UniTen (USM, 5pm).

STANDINGS

PREMIER DIVISION

P W D L F A Pt
KLHC 10 8 1 1 47 15 25
YNS 10 7 0 3 35 22 21
UNIKL 10 6 2 2 18 14 20
TNB 10 6 1 3 21 12 19
SAPURA 9 5 0 4 27 19 15
NUR INSAFI 10 4 1 5 18 30 13
MAYBANK 9 1 3 5 7 14 6
ATM-AIROD 10 2 0 8 10 32 6
UITM 10 1 0 9 14 39 3

DIVISION ONE
P W D L F A Pt
ATM JNR 7 6 1 0 20 4 19
BJSS 7 4 0 3 15 8 12
BPSS 6 4 0 2 12 10 12
IPOH CH 8 3 2 3 14 16 11
MALACCA CC 7 3 0 4 10 9 9
USM 7 2 0 5 9 22 6
UNITEN 6 0 1 5 3 14 1