KUALA Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) and Terengganu Hockey Team (THT) are on a collision course to claim the Malaysia Hockey League Premier Division title.
That is, provided both the teams win today. KLHC will meet Sapura, while THT play Maybank in a crucial Round Two match and if both the front-runners play to form-book, they will meet on Nov 28 to decide the League title.
Double champions KLHC had beaten Sapura 4-0 while THT beat Maybank 4-3 in Round One.
"Although we struggled to beat Maybank in Round One, much has changed since then as now my Korean imports are much more comfortable with the local players and I expect another three points before the crucial match against KLHC next weekend," said THT coach Sarjit Singh.
KLHC are also leading on goals as they have 20, while THT 17. But that does not matter to coach K. Dharmaraj.
"In the end, I believe the goals will not count as we are going for wins in every match and after this weekend, we will travel to Terengganu to play second placed THT.
"So far, THT have shown great improvement in their match, but so have we," said Dharmaraj.
Meanwhile, former Malaysian assistant coach K. Gobinathan will be the chief coach for Bangladesh in the World League Round Two in Singapore on Jan 17-25.
This is a first for a Malaysian coach: "I was approached and agreed to coach Bangladesh for two months for the World League. This will be a good opportunity for me to further my coaching career," said Gobinathan who has assisted K. Dharmaraj in many tournaments.
Malaysia are the top seeds in the World League Round Two and must finish top-three to play in the Semi-finals and have a shot at playing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
The other teams who will be in Singapore are Japan, Poland, Singapore, Oman
and Ukraine. One more team will be the winners of the last Round One tournament which will be played in Suva, Fiji on Dec 6-13. The teams involved are Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
TODAY: Terengganu HT v Maybank (Kuala Terengganu, 5pm); KLHC v Sapura (National Stadium 6pm, Pitch II); Tenaga Nasional v UniKL (National Stadium 8pm, Pitch II).
STANDINGS
P W D L F A Pts
KLHC 7 7 0 0 27 7 21
TERENGGANU 7 6 0 1 31 14 18
TENAGA 7 3 0 4 13 15 9
SAPURA 7 1 3 3 14 22 6
MAYBAN 7 0 3 4 12 21 3
UNIKL 7 0 2 5 7 25 2