Thursday, April 13, 2017

JHL: UniKL and Olak geared up for epic battle...

UNIKL Young Guns and Olak-NurInsafi have been clocking extra hours for their crucial Division One Junior Hockey League (JHL) match Friday at the Pandamaran Stadium in Klang.
  Both teams have been training none stop for the last five days, and UniKL even took the trouble to train at the Pandamaran pitch Thursday to get familiar with the artificial surface.
  "We needed the training session at Pandamaran to have a feel of the surface. It is an important weekend for us as we face two strong teams (BJSS Thunderbolts on Sunday) and honestly getting four points from these two matches will be the result we are looking for," said UniKL coach Arul Selvaraj.
  "Our main problem to date is making use of the chances that we create and this is something we have been working hard at."
  UniKL Young Guns have played three matches so far, losing once to PJCC Tigers (2-1) while registering two wins over BJSS Juniors (2-0) and SMK Bentara Luar ( 2-1).
  As for Olak team manager Joseph de Silva is ready to welcome UniKL with a marching band display.
  "We have had five days of solid training where we also used ice-baths to settle nerves as we are looking to beat UniKL at all cost," said de Silva.
  Meanwhile the combination of there JHL Thunderbolts teams (BJSS, SSTMI and Temerloh) were beaten 5-1 by India in the final of the Asian Schools tournament in Bhopal. The Malaysian goal was scored by Akhimullah Anuar Esook.
  In the semi-finals, Malaysia beat Singapore 12-1.
  And over in Europe, coach K. Dharmaraj's women beat German club side Crefeld 7-0. The women, who earlier beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0. They will play 11 more matches, to prepare for the Brussels World League Semifinals on June 21-July 2, and return at the end of the month.
  FRIDAY -- Division One: PJCC Tigers v BJSS Juniors (PJCC Stadium, 6pm), Olak-NurInsafi v UniKL Young Guns (Pandamaran, 5pm).
  Division Two: Group A -- MISCF-UFL penang v USM Juniors (Sungai Petani, 5pm), Penang HA-USM v Stingers (USM, 5pm), Young Lions v MSS Kedah (Syed Putra, 5pm).
  Group B: Terengganu Juniors v Andersons (Batu Buruk, 5pm), MSSWPKL v Felda Juniors (KPM, 5pm); Group C: Young Hurricanes v SSTMI Juniors (Bukit Serindit, 5pm), TBSS Tampin v MBMB Warriors (Zaaba, 5pm), Johor HA v Bentara Luar (Taman Daya, 5pm).