Pahang thrash Perlis for semis

26/01/2003

PAHANG ..............6 PERLIS ..............0
JOHOR ...............1 KELANTAN ............0
SELANGOR ............2 N SEMBILAN ..........1
PERAK ..............11 FORCES ..............0
KL ..................6 MALACCA .............1
PAHANG, in Group B, have virtually booked their semi-final ticket when
they thrashed Perlis 6-0 in the National Under-21 tournament at the
National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Pahang, with nine points from four matches, next meet Negri Sembilan to wrap up their fixtures. Perlis also have nine points but they next meet
New South Wales AIS in their last match today, and it looks a tough
assignment.
NSW AIS from Group B and Kuala Lumpur from Group A are the only two teams who have made the semi-finals while the other two spots will go to the wire as fixtures conclud today.
Yesterday, Pahang were in terrific form scoring five goals in the second
half after a slow start.
In the first half, the match was evenly balanced with only Omar Hafiz's
goal giving Pahang a slight advantage.
But after the breather, Ismail Abu (46th), Shahrun Nabil (54th), Al
Fadhir Kassim (58th) and Megat Azrafiq (61st) completed the rout.
Pahang, the 1995 Under-21 champions, finished seventh in the last
edition in 2001 in Ipoh.
However, the Sabah Malaysia Games bronze medallists face the daunting
task of meeting KL in the semi-finals and their road to glory might be cut
short.
"I was surprised with the score against Perlis today (yesterday) because
they (Perlis) have been defending very well in their previous matches. The first half was evenly matched," said Pahang coach Izwan Suhardi.
"But in the second, the boys were more confident and it was easy after
that."
On his plans for the semis against KL, Izwan said: "There is nothing
much I can do to improve Pahang's play at this stage. KL will go in as the
favourites and the only thing my boys can do is try to rely on counter-
attacks.
"But since it is the semi-finals, we have an equal chance of upsetting
the favourites if we catch them on their bad day."
In Group A, three teams will battle for the second semis ticket as
Malacca and Perak are tied on 12 points. The third is Johor who have nine points and a match in hand against Armed Forces today.
Yesterday, Malacca almost did the unthinkable when they held defending
champions KL 1-1 as the half-time horn blew.
But in the second half, KL turned on the heat and scored five more goals
to deny Malacca a clean passage into the last four.
Malacca will have to wait for the outcome of the Perak-KL and Johor-
Armed Forces match before finding out their fate.
(END)