Under-16 lads whipped in cold Mannheim..

THE National Under-16 team received a whipping lesson in the Four-Nation Whitsun Tournament in Mannheim, Germany last weekend.
    Coach S. Prakash blamed it on biting cold, as his charges went down 4-3 to Germany, 6-2 to Netherlands and 3-0 to Belgium to end at the bottom of the pool.
    “The only good match that we had under fair weather was against Germany where we were leading 3-1 until the 60th minute, but collapsed in end play.
   “The other two matches were played during minus weather, and the biting cold was just too much for my charges to handle,” said Prakash.
    Netherlands were the eventual champions: “The gap between Malaysia and Belgium as well as Germany is not too big at this age group.
    “However, the Dutch are a class above and will be the players to watch in the near future.”
    There were some matters raised when the team were selected as some state officials claimed that the best were not named.
    However, Prakash defended his selection and said that the pool of coaches had chosen the best available, but the weather was not kind to his charges.
   Forward Luqman Hakim  was named as the Best Player of the  Tournament.
  The players: Amirul Hakim, Zairie Nizam, Najme Ahmad, Badrul Amin, Ramdan Ariffin, Syazly Ibrahim, Noor Adha Fadzil, Ahmad Najme, Mohamed Aiman Zahari, Muhammad Aiman Zahari, Aliff Syazwan, Luqman Hakim, Suhayl Ainol, Adrian Andy, Khairul Helmy,  Abdul Khaliq,
Ahmad Farhan, Hafiz Aziz.