Thursday, April 1, 2010

Its KL-Perak final

By T.N.Alagesh

FAVOURITES Kuala Lumpur will square off against a high riding Perak side in the final for the Razak Cup Division One title on Sunday.
Despite, having one more match to play against each other to complete their Division One fixtures tommorow(Friday), both teams booked their slots yesterday after brushing aside their respective opponents.
Perak, unbeaten after five matches in the tournament yesterday edged Penang 1-0 with their solitary goal coming from a field goal effort through Noor Khairul Azrain in the 35th minute.
Perak coach Manjit Singh Grewal was happy with their performance saying his players had put on a strong and impressive show despite being a little worn out after their tough match against Armed Forces on Tuesday night.
"The team had less than 24 hours of rest before going down to the pitch at 4pm yesterday to take on Penang, and the blazing sunlight during the match had also made the players get tired easily," he said.
Manjit said although the team had secured their place in the final on Sunday, he will instruct his players to go all out to extend their winning streak to six matches when they wrap up their Division One fixtures against KUala Lumpur on Friday.
In the second match yesterday, 18-times champions Kuala Lumpur thumped Armed Forces 5-0 to finish second with their penalty corner specialist Mohd Amin Rahim was the toast of the team when he earned himself a hatrick.
The national player opened the scoring for Kuala Lumpur in the 23rd minute before sounding the board again via another penalty corner a minute before half time.
Amin, who were among the six national players in the Kuala Lumpur side secured his hatrick in the 38th minute from a well-executed penalty corner.
Tajul Roslie Mohamed(57th) and Harvinder Singh(66th) scored one goal a piece to kill off their opponents.
Despite the convincing win along with a place in the final, Kuala Lumpur coach, Nor Saiful Zaini was far from pleased with his players performance against Armed Forces, who are rooted to the bottom of the Division One table.
"The forwards should have seized the chances during the match and convert them into goals, instead they failed to add to the goal tally.
"I will work more on the attacking players so that they will be more sharper in their next match On friday, and perform better when they take on Kuala Lumpur on Sunday," he said.
RESULTS -- Division One: Perak 1 Penang 0: Kuala Lumpur 5 Armed Forces 0: Negri x Johor x.
Division Two: GROUP A Kelantan 1 Singapore 5: Police 4 Sabah 2,
TODAY : Fixtures : GROUP A : Perlis v Terengganu(3.30pm), Kelantan v Police (5.30pm)
GROUP B : Pahang v Selangor(3.30pm), Kedah v Sabah(5.30pm)
All matches at Pitch I and II of the Kuantan Stadium.