Stroke of luck might decide

KUALA Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) will be hoping to break their TNB Cup jinx when they play Sapura in the final of the Malaysia Hockey League at the Tun Razak Stadium today.
KLHC have been very unlucky in the knock-out stages, and have only one 2008 Overall title to show after playing five times in the final.
However, they have five League titles in their collection.
“We have been unlucky in many of the Overall finals, and lost two on penalty shoot-outs. The irony of it is that we trained for one week on penalty strokes on both occasions , and even nominated the five players who will take it. But we lost in both finals.
“But in 2008, we did not train for penalties at all, and I only asked around who wanted to take the flick after the extra- time.
“And we won the shoot out. That is what I am not going to think about the match going into penalties to decide the outcome,” said Dharmaraj.
Playing under the banner of Ernst and Young in 2006, they lost 3-4 to Sapura on penalties after extra time failed to resolve a 1-1 deadlock.
And against Tenaga Nasional the 2007 final, the match ended 2-2 after extra time. In the shoot out, Ernst and Young were beaten 2-3.
However, Ernst and Young finally won their elusive Overall title in 2008 when they beat Sapura 6-5 on penalties after the match ended 2-2.
As for Sapura, they are masters in slowing down the match, and this would surely break the rhythm of speedy KLHC forwards.
“I have some experienced players who can hold the match when we need to, and against a fast forward-line like KLHC, we might need to do it more often than other matches,” said Sapura coach I. Vickneswaran.
Sapura lost both their league matches 3-0 and 6-2 to KLHC, but that was when they were in a transformation period.
“The team were slow to start in the League as we relied on individual players.
“However, in the knock-out stage, the players finally clicked as a team and this is the effort which took us into the final over more fancied opponents,” said Vickneswaran.
The match is expected to be explosive, and penalty cor ners, not penalty strokes, could well decide the new Overall champion.
PAST WINNERS (League, and Overall): 1987 RMR, Kilat; 1988 UAB, Maybank; 1989 RMR, Kilat; 1990 Kilat, Maybank; 1991-92 Kilat, Kilat; 1992-93 YNS, MBf; 1994 Maybank, Maybank; 1995 Maybank, YNS; 1996 YNS, YNS; 1997 MPPJ, MPPJ; 1998 no tournament due to Commonwealth Games; 1999 BSN, BSN; 2000-01 Tenaga, BSN; 2002 Tenaga, BSN;
2003 Tenaga, Tenaga; 2004 Sapura, Tenaga; 2005 Sapura, Sapura; 2006 Ernst & Young, Sapura; 2007 Ernst & Young, Tenaga Nasional; 2008 Ernst & Young, Ernst & Young; 2009/10 KL Hockey Club, Tenaga Nasional; 2010/11 KL Hockey Club.