Sunday, July 12, 2015

Drag-flicker to drag UniKL into semis...

UNIKL Young Guns are aiming for a semi-finals spot in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) which will begin on Aug 1.
  And to achieve their target, they are in the midst of hiring a foreign drag-flicker.
  With only six teams in the Premier Division, UniKL who finished sixth last season, will be jostling for the semis with double champions Terengganu Hockey Team, Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club, Sapura, Tenaga Nasional and Maybank.
  UniKL coach Arul Selvaraj will be banking on four national players who played in the recently concluded World League Semifinals in Antwerp.
  "All four of them (Haziq Samsul, Baljit Singh, Izwan Firdaus, Meor Azuan) had an exceptional tournament and will be out main players this season. We hope to break into the semi-finals circle, it wont be easy, but we are ready to give our best," said Arul.
  Arul, who is also Project 2016 coach, has roped in 10 from the Junior World Cup trainees to play for UniKL.
  Players like Sufi Ismat, Zul Pidaus Mizun, Maxhans Christi, Ashran Hamsani, Azwar Rahman, Najmi Farizal, Nor Azrul and Ezry Mustafa will turn out for UniKL, and will also represent Malaysia in the Junior Asia Cup in Kuantan in November.
  "We are also in the midst of signing up two foreign players, but I can't name them yet because negotiations are ongoing. All I can say is that one if from South Africa and the other from Germany.
  "And one of them is a penalty corener drag flicker. We won many penalty corners, even against the best teams in the MHL last season, but our conversion rate was very low and thats why we finished last.
  "Hopefully, if we manage to sign the foreign drag flicker, things will chance for the better," said Arul.
  For the record, last season saw UniKL bundled out of the quarter-finals stage for the sixth-year running.