Thursday, July 5, 2012

WOMEN: India 2 Malaysia 1

BANGKOK: India rallied from a goal deficit to beat Malaysia 2-1 in their final league match on Tuesday to make the semifinal of the sixth Junior Women's Asia Cup hockey championship.
     India finished second in group A behind China. In a must-win match for India, the teams played out a goalless first half.
    Norazlin Sumantri scored for Malaysia within a minute of the resumption of second half but Anupa Barla (52nd minute) and skipper Ritu Rani, who converted a penalty corner in the 65th minute, ensured that India reach the next stage.
   India will face the winner of Group B - either Korea or Japan - in the semifinal to be played on July 5.
   Ten minutes after Malaysia took the lead, India started to dominate the proceedings and in the last 25 minutes hardly spared an inch.
   Anupa's strike capped a good pass by vice-captain and fellow forward Poonam Rani, while Ritu Rani successfully converted a penalty corner.
   The Indian team's defenders toiled hard to keep Malaysia at bay. India scored their third win in four matches. They had beaten Sri Lanka and Singapore in earlier games before losing to China.

The Times of India

Over to Revington in August

By Hidir Reduan and Norhafiza Sallehuddin

SOUTH African Paul Revington and former Malaysian international Arul Selvaraj will officially take over coaching the national hockey team in August.

Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said Revington, who will replace Tai Beng Hai, is expected to sign the official agreement before Aug 1.
    "Revington will complete his existing contract with the Ireland national team and sort out his papers before coming here. An official agreement signing ceremony will be held as soon as he arrives," said Tengkui Abdullah in Kuantan yesterday.
    "Revington has verbally agreed to coach the national team and will be the person in charge of the national team in the Champions Challenge 1 in Argentina later this year."
    Tengku Abdullah explained that Revington came to Malaysia last month to discuss the prospect of coaching the national team and an understanding was reached between MHC and the coach. 

Myanmar age trick?

By Ajitpal Singh

THE MALAYSIAN football team flew back to Kuala Lumpur yesterday from the Asian Under-22 Qualifiers in Yangon amid an air of suspicion regarding the age of some Myanmar players.
    It is believed the hosts had fielded overage players, which has been a common practice in previous tournaments, to finish second in Group G and qualify for next year's tournament proper.
    Based on Myanmar's team list, at least eight players are believed to be overage including Yangon United striker Kaung Si Thu, who scored a brace in the 2-1 win over Malaysia on Tuesday. Their ages were stated in their clubs' websites.
   According to the Yangon United's official website (www.ygnutd.com), Kaung turned 25 on Jan 22 while other local portals revealed that seven others were aged 23.
   Coach Ong Kim Swee, upon arrival in KL, said that he would lodge a complaint, accompanied with the evidence, to the FA of Malaysia (FAM) for further action.
   He said those registered for the qualifier, as stipulated in the tournament's regulations, must be 21 and below.
  An official of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said that it has not received any official protest from Malaysia regarding the allegation.
   AFC regularly does comprehensive screening of competing teams, especially for age-group tournaments.
   FAM will only make an official statement today after consulting Kim Swee.
   "We cannot give a statement as the team only arrived today (yesterday). We will seek clarification from Kim Swee before making a stand," said FAM secretary-general Datuk Azzuddin Ahmad.
   It is learnt that FAM will investigate the matter thoroughly before the next course of action as it does not want to create any unnecessary controversy.
   According to a report in the Myanmar Times (www.mmtimes.com), headlined "Age manipulation harmful, say coaches', in February, it alleged that its national football federation has an unofficial policy of age manipulation.
    It also claimed that the team bound for next year's Sea Games Under-23 competition have five overage players.