Five head for France, Germany..

PIC: Selvaraju in red..

FIVE Malaysians will be heading abroad Saturday to ply their trade in France and German leagues.
  Former national player S. Selvaraju and former national coach K. Dharmaraj help secure clubs for the players, while the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) provided the release letters.
  Funding came from the National Sports Council as well as UniKL Hockey Club.
  Selvaraju, who started his career by playing in the 2005 Junior World Cup in Rotterdam, will be playing for Wespen HC, a Division Two outfit in Germany, together with twins Shazril Irwan, 21, and Shazrul Imran Nazli.
  Locally, Shazril plays for Tenaga Nasional while Shazrul for UniKL.
  Former national player Megat Azrafiq will head for France to play for Division Two outfit PSG HC.
  Nor Aqmal Mohamed (UniKL) and Khairul Amirin (KLHC) will play for 
German club Marrindoff HC.
  "This collaboration between German and France clubs was made possible with help from many quarters, and in the end, the country will benefit by sending our youth to play in overseas leagues. UniKL and Dharmaraj played a big role in securing sponsorship and clubs for the boys," said Selvaraju.
    The five will return in June.

Malaysia v Ghana in FIH pictures

Women's World League: Malaysia in semi-finals

THE Malaysian women's team claimed a semis spot in the World League Round Two when they edged Ghana 2-0 at the Major Dhyan Chand  Stadium in New Delhi yesterday.

  Coach Nasihin Nubli's charges found the fast running Ghana players too hot to handle, even though Norazlin Sumantri scored a third minute penalty corner goal.

  The second goal only came in the 25th minute off a Hanis Onn field attempt, after which Ghana packed their defence and kept the score-line low.

  Malaysia will now play either Poland of Russia in the semis. (match later today).

  "We went in expecting a tough match after Ghana showed their resilience in the last Group A match against Poland (Poland won 4-0). And even though the scoreline is not impressive, I believe my charges will not disappoint in the semi-finals after a day's rest," said Nasihin.

  Only two teams in New Delhi qualify automatically to World League Semi-finals which is the last chance to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

  The third team will be the highest rankled side which finishes bronze medallist in the various WL Round Two.

  For the record, the Malaysian women have never qualified for the WL Semi-finals: "This is our best chance to play in the WL Semi-finals, and we are not about to give away a ticket to the semi-finals without putting up a fierce fight," said Nasihin.

  The good news for Nasihin is that his charges have scored 18 goals in four matches and have yet to let in a single goal.

Malaysian women looking good...

THE Malaysian women's team will play Ghana in the quarter-finalss of the World League Round Two in New Delhi today, with coach Nasihin Nubli's charges the hot favourites to advance into the semis.
   Malaysia have been on fire in the pool matches as they thumped Kazakhstan 8-0, Russia 3-0 and Singapore 5-0, without letting in any goals to top Group B.
   Ghana on the other hand finished last in Group A and even lost 13-0 to India.
   Anticipating a good game ahead, Malaysia coach Nasihin Nubli said: "Winning all three matches in Group B had definitely motivated the players a lot but as we enter the quarter-finals our aim is to book a berth in the finals of this tournament. We know we can beat Ghana but looking at their game against Poland yesterday (Ghana only lost 4-0), it might a little tougher than we expected. We trained on penalty corner variations today (yesterday) and hopefully early goals will make the match easier to dominate."
   TODAY: quarter-finals: Malaysia v Ghana (3.45pm Malaysian time); Kazakhstan v Thailand; Poland v Russia; India v Singapore.

UniKL 2 PJCC 0

LEAGUE champions SSTMI Thunderbolts were given an early shock, but went on the beat SSP-MSP Thunderbolts 5-1 in the first leg semi-finals of the MHC-Milo-NSC Milo Cup at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
   SSTMI Thunderbolts virtually booked a spot in the Milo Cup final even before playing the return leg on Friday.
   However, at the adjacent pitch, UniKL Young Guns had to bring out their best to edge Petaling Jaya City Council (PJCC) 2-0 to keep their hopes alive of playing in the final.
   UniKL got their goals off Maxhans Christi in the 25th minute, while the second goal was scored by Shamsul Aliff in the 58th.
   SSTMI took a 2-0 lead off Luqman Hakim (34th) and Aliff Syazwan (36th) but were shocked when their Pahang counter-parts narrowed the score off Idris Samad (44th).  But Amirul Hamizan (58th), Nik Aiman (61st) and Aliff again in the (67th)delivered for SSTMI and they look set to defend their Milo Cup title on Sunday.
    For the record, UniKL and PJCC played to a 1-1 draw in the league: "I am proud of my players because they showed great drive even though we did not have three key players today as they were out because of suspension and injuries. The bench showed that it has the strenght to contribute towards the success of the team," said UniKL coach I. Vickneswaran.
   PJCC team manager Zainal Abidin looked dejected, but said two goals is not too difficult to chase in the return leg.
   "We missed all our penalty corner chances (five in total) and this is quite unusual for my players. However, we are not giving up the final slot, as I believe my charges have the capabilities to make a comeback in the return leg," said Zainal.
    RESULTS:  Semi-finals First Leg: SSTMI Thunderbolts 5 SSP-MSP Thunderbolts 1; UniKL Young Guns 2 Petaling Jaya City Council 0.
      TOMORROW:  Semi-finals Second Leg: SSTMI Thunderbolts v SSP-MSP Thunderbolts (National Stadium Pitch I, 5.30pm); UniKL Young Guns v Petaling Jaya City Council (National Stadium Pitch II, 5.30pm).