TENAGA Nasional upset the formbook when they edged double champions Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) 4-3 in the Premier Division of the Malaysia Hockey League yesterday.
The win saw Tenaga topping the table with 13 points going into the return-leg of the MHL.
The top-of-the-table clash proved to be a thriller, as Tenaga Nasional rattled defending double champions Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) by playing attacking hockey in the first five minutes.
Tenaga, whose only blemish in the first round was a 2-2 draw against Maybank, were again powered by national player Faizal Saari who scored his tenth goal in five matches in the fifth minute.
Faizal made a darting run to the goal-line, and just as the crowd thought he was going to run out of playing turf, he unleashed a powerful reverse-stick drive which beat goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin.
But after scoring the early goal, Tenaga decided to sit back and soak in the pressure, and only attacked off rare counters.
They were punished by Syamim Yusof, whose penalty corner rebound in the 26th minute drew KLHC on level terms.
But Tenaga re-took the lead in the 32nd minute, when Amir Farid's reverse stick again beat Roslan for the half-time lead.
In the second half, Faizal again delivered for Tenaga when he scored his 11th goal off a penalty corner drive in the 42nd minute, and the utility giants were looking good for an upset.
However, KLHC skipper Azlan Misron narrowed the gap to 2-3 when he tapped in from close range off a penalty corner set-piece in the 54th minute.
But Faizal again came to Tenaga's rescue with another powerful penalty corner drive in the 65th minute for a comfortable 4-2 lead.
Ahmad Kazamirul scored a 70th minute penalty corner goal for KLHC, but the day belonged to Tenaga.
UniKL were denied their first point when Maybank came back from the dead to beat them 2-1.
The university side took the lead off a Noor Faez Ibrahim penalty corner attempt in the 19th minute, but became complacent and toyed around for the remainder of the half.
And they were duly punished with a comeback initiated by Amirullah Zainol in the 42nd minute.
Skipper Hairul Nizam gave Maybank full points, when he stole a weak clearance at the top of the semi-circle and put the ball between the pads of goalkeeper Shahrul Azaddin in the 64th minute.
Coach Wallace Tan was not happy with the performance, but the three points made his day.
"It was not how I would have liked them to play, as we failed to score any off the nine penalty corners that we won. But at the end of the day, the three points have placed us in a fighting position for a semi-finals slot," said Wallace.
Maybank hired Olympian Pakistanis Shakeel Abbasi and Muhammad Waqas, but they were of little help yesterday.
Waqas, who took the penalty corners, could not find the mark, and injured his hand in the process which could see him sit out Maybank's first match of the return-leg.
DIVISION ONE
P W D L F A Pts
Johor HA 3 2 0 1 10 9 6
Armed Forces 3 1 2 0 4 2 5
Uniten 3 1 1 1 5 4 4
Thunderbolts 3 1 1 1 3 4 4
BJSS 2 1 0 1 6 5 3
UiTM 2 1 0 1 1 2 3
Politeknik 2 0 0 2 2 5 0
PREMIER DIVISION
P W D L F A Pts
TNB 5 4 1 0 15 9 13
KLHC 5 4 0 1 25 6 12
Sapura 5 3 0 2 12 10 9
Maybank 5 2 1 2 13 13 7
Nur Insafi-MBI 5 1 0 4 8 23 3
UniKL 5 0 0 5 7 19 0
RESULTS: Premier Division: Nur Insafi-MBI 1 Sapura 5; UniKL 1 Maybank 2; KL Hockey Club 3 Tenaga 4.
Division One: Uniten 2 Johor HA 3.
TODAY -- Premier Division: BJSS v Politeknik KPT (National Stadium, Pitch II, 4pm), UiTM v Thunderbolt (National Stadium, Pitch II, 6pm); Armed Forces v Johor HA (National Stadium, Pitch II, 8pm).
Friday, September 14, 2012
Malaysia 11 Singapore 0...
The hosts next play Kazakhstan today, and the formbook favours them as the Kazakhs could only beat Sri Lanka 6-1.
It was an effortless win as Malaysian ran rings around a relatively young Singapore side that had eight players from the Junior Asia Cup squad.
Singapore even fielded 14-year-old Neo Yu Shan in the starting eleven and she gave a good account of herself.
Malaysia made good the penalty corners awarded to them, scoring 8 goals from the 17 that came their way.
“I could not have asked for a better start as the performance was outstanding. Our penalty corners worked and that attributed to half our tally,” said Malaysian coach Nasihin Nubli.
“Now we have to beat Kazakhstan and from what I saw of them today (yesterday), they are a strong physical side and play robust hockey.
“We need to be patient as I expect them to try catch us on the counter which is their strength.”
Malaysia opened scoring in the fifth minute through Siti Rahmah Othman, who went on to noth a hat-trick, while the other goals were scored by A. Kannagi (14th, 53rd), Nor Hidayah Ahmad Bokhari (15th, 35th), Siti Rahmah (24th, 58th), Fazilla Slyvester Silin (47th, 67th), Siti Noor Amarina Ruhaini (61st), Juliani Din (69th).
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan opened their campaign with a convincing 6-1 win over Sri Lanka.
They took a 3-0 lead in the opening eight minutes, but Sri Lanka avoided a double digit humiliation by defending stoutly in the second half.
The Kazakhs were also guilty of squandering, as they were awarded 11 penalty corners, but scored only four.
The Kazakhs next play Malaysia today in a crucial do-or-die battle which will decide the gold medallists.
RESULTS: Sri Lanka 1 Kazakhstan 6, Malaysia 11 Singapore 0.
Today: Singapore v Sri Lanka (4pm), Kazakhstan v Malaysia (6pm).
Sunday: Singapore v Kazakhstan (4pm), Malaysia v Sri Lanka (6pm).
Convincing Kazakhstan..
Kazakhstan
opened their campaign in the World League First Round with a convining 6-1 win
over Sri Lanka at the Kuantan Hockey Stadium.
Having
led 3-0 within the opening eight minutes, Kazakhstan was foiled by the
tenancity of the Sri Lanka players who defended stoutly despite being under
pressure a large part of the match.
Though
awarded 11 penalty corners in the match, Kazakhstan scored only four and this
attributed in a way to their failure to notch up a much bigger win.
Kazakhstan
went onto the offensive from the start and were duly rewarded when Vera
Domashneva in the 4th minute.
In
the 6th minute Kazakhstan was awarded their first penalty cormer.
Instead of making a direct attempt, Gulnara Imangaliyeva relayed the ball to
the far post for Vera to deflect into goal to give Kazakhstan a 2-0 lead.
Sri
Lanka skipper Dinesha Pereira and Madhushani Battagodage created some openings
and forced two penalty corners but they could not get a shot on target to
trouble Olga Sheveleva in the Khazak goal.
Gulnara
then scored via direct hits from two penalty corners, in the 8th and
21st minutes to put Kazakhstan 4-0 ahead and Sri Lanka were reeling.
However
Sri Lanka managed to reduce the deficit in the 23rd minute through Dinesha and tightened their defence.
Kazakhstan
tried to break down the opponents defence with Olga Khonina and Gulnara coming
close as the teams trooped off at halftime with Kazkhstan leading 4-1.
The
exchanges were even in the opening minutes of the second half as Kazakhstan were
foiled time and again by Aruni Jauyasinghe and Madhura Raththepitiya.
Kazakhstan
managed to net their fifth goal in the 66th minute through the
efforts of Vera who completed her hattrick. Another penalty corner conversion
by Natalya Sazontova in the 70th minute ensured a big win for
Khazakhstan who take on hosts Malaysia on Saturday.
FIH World League heads to Malaysia
The tournament is the third Women’s World League Round 1 event to take place in recent weeks, following competitions in Czech Republic (Prague) and Ghana (Accra). So far, Belarus, Italy, Scotland, Czech Republic and Ghana have already booked their places in the second round of the competition, with two more places up for grabs at the tournament in Malaysia this weekend. Further qualifiers will come from events in Austria (Vienna, 18-23 September), Trinidad & Tobago (Port of Spain, 11-17 November) and Fiji (Suva, 8-15 December).
Despite their home advantage and high position in the FIH World Rankings, Malaysia are taking nothing for granted in their quest to reach the second round of the FIH World League. “I will field my best team for every match and this is no place for exposure as a place in the second round is at stake”, said Malaysia coach Mohd Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim in a recent interview. “The format, a one round league, does not allow us the luxury of a second bite of the cake.”
For those not in the know, the Hockey World League has been developed by the FIH to present hockey at its best whilst also providing rapidly improving hockey nations with a stage to show what they are capable of. The tournament has four rounds which take place between August 2012 and February 2013, with each round acting as a qualifier for the next. This process gives every team the potential reach the tournament final. The Hockey World League also acts as the qualification competition for the FIH World Cups which take place in 2014, with 12 qualification places up for grabs. To read more information about the aims and structure of the tournament, please click here.
Official match reports from the competition will be posted to the Kuantan 2012 World League webpage at the end of each tournament day. For real-time results, please follow the FIH World League Twitter page: @World_League1.
FIH site
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