Dharmaraj: Faizal destroyed us...

KUALA Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) coach K. Dharmaraj attributed his team’s 3-4 defeat to Tenaga Nasional in the Premier Division of the Malaysia Hockey league to one player -- Faizal Saari.
   And the irony is that, Dharmaraj had him on his side to win the Junior Asia Cup and qualify for the World Cup in New Delhi next year, but Faizal is now a deadly sniper on the other side of the fence.
    “He has turned into the best player in the country, and is single handedly is keeping Tenaga afloat in the MHL. Without his 12 goals, Tenaga would be struggling in the Premier Division,” said Dharmaraj.
    Tenaga Nasional has only scored a total of 15 goals in five matches, and if not for Faizal’s 12, they would be at the bottom of the standings instead of topping it on 13 points.
    Faizal’s count was two goals in the 2-2 draw against Maybank, and four against Nur Insafi-MBI, and two hat-tricks against UniKl and KLHC.
   He has only failed to score against Sapura, where Tenaga struggled to win 1-0 courtesy of Firhan Ashaari .
   “My players dominated the match with 29 circle penetrations as compared to Tenaga’s nine. We also had 10 penalty corners but could only score three goals while Tenaga only had four penalty corners and scored two goals.
   “I don’t attribute our defeat to strategy, and will use the same tactics when we square off against Tenaga in the return leg. It was more of a bad patch, and I expect my players to bounce back,” said Dharmaraj.
   The return leg of the Premier Division starts today, and KLHC meet Sapura whom then blanked out 5-0 in the first leg.
   “We will press from the start, as I have a fee-flowing side and I will not shackle my strikers just because they were off target in one match,” said Dharmaraj.

DIVISION ONE

              P  W  D  L  F  A  Pts
Johor HA      3  2  0  1  10 9    6
Armed Forces  3  1  2  0  4  2    5
Uniten        3  1  1  1  5  4    4
Thunderbolts  3  1  1  1  3  4    4
BJSS          2  1  0  1  6  5    3
UiTM          2  1  0  1  1  2    3
Politeknik    2  0  0  2  2  5    0

PREMIER DIVISION
                     P  W  D  L  F   A  Pts
TNB               5  4  1  0  15  9  13
KLHC              5  4  0  1  25  6  12
Sapura            5  3  0  2  12  10  9
Maybank           5  2  1  2  13  13  7
Nur Insafi-MBI    5  1  0  4  8   23  3
UniKL             5  0  0  5  7   19  0

    RESULTS: Division One -- BJSS x Politeknik KPT x, UiTM x Thunderbolt x; Armed Forces x Johor HA x.
    TODAY: Premier Division: Nur Inafi-MBI v UniKL (Azlan Shah Stadium, 5pm), KLHC v Sapura (National Stadium, 6pm), Tenaga v Maybank (National Stadium, 8pm).
    Division One:  Uniten  v  BJSS  (National Stadium II, 4pm).