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COMMENTBy Tai Beng Hai(chief coach)THE long term objective of bridging the gap between Malaysia and the top six or top 10 ranked hokey teams has always been the primary focus of the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF).
And obviously, in this Tour of Europe, the key objectives were to play Netherlands and Spain and see where we stand.
Besides exposing our players to the European style and the process of creating depth or a bigger pool of talent in the team, the Olympic Qualifiers is also ingrained in our pro grammes.
And I believe, we manage to achieve these during the Tour.
We (coaches and MHF) have been rebuilding the team since 2009 and there have been improvements. But we can’t just take Malaysia back to the top overnight.
Changing back, and improving our style and concept by playing to our strong points and not going against our culture has definitely benefited us as can be seen from the silver medal at the Asian Games. And to some extent, the final of the 2009 World Cup qualifier in Invercargill, New Zealand.
We are happy that the program has managed to gradually include some young players into the national team and is beginning to show positive results at this early stage.
Leaving behind four main players from the Asian Games was difficult because of various reasons but the need to strive for the long term objectives was the reason.
And for a start,, youngsters Faisal Saari, Marhan Jalil, Azammi Adabi and Azreen Rizal can be considered to have made the grade.
Now the other new batch of four players in the pool of 25, and five players under attachment from the 2013 Project Squad will hopefully see to the long term MHF strategic plan.
The thing we take away the most is the inclusion of younger players from 2013 is their willingness to fight and there is no fear in them to play against world No 3 Netherlands and No 4 Spain.
Muhammad Firhan, Muhammad Azri and Faiz Helmi gave a good show in this Tour. Their physical condition to compete at the senior level is the only setback. But I feel through more exposure and training they will definitely make it to the national team and this is what we are trying to achieve with this batch of players with time fast running out on us.
The MHF Council has given their consensus to the national team program with the inclusion of the attachment program as one of the ways to increase the depth of national team and strengthen the 2013 team indirectly by fast tracking the four players and five attachment players (25 trainees with 4 juniors included and 5 players under attachment to national team), it is a win-win situation for Malaysian hockey in the long run.
We will be approaching the four months timeline in our programme, and the review is up after the Razak Cup.
One of the objectives is to see players playing more competitively to fight for a place in the national team. Some establish players are already stagnant as the window to perform at the highest level is already closing up on them, so the younger talented players must create a healthy com petitive environment by striving to take this opportunity to make the grade.
On the European training Tour we are very satisfied that the general results was good in Spain even though we started poorly against Holland.
This tour was beneficial to expose our players to the European style of playing. We always find it difficult to play them because of their different approach and their long reach. In order to improve at a faster rate we need to play these European teams more often.
We came close in the first match (lost 2-0) and beating the Spanish 3-2 in the second match, it has obviously injected some believe into the players that they can achieve results against the top six in the world.
The primary objective is obviously the Olympic Qualifiers in early 2012 and the next important assignment is the Champions Challenge 1 in South Africa.
Both the tournaments can improve our ranking, and that is what we are working to achieve in the next few months.
THIS is what is looks like from the RM68 seats at the National Soccer Stadium in Bukit Jalil. Cant even see jersey numbers of Arsenal and Malaysia players, wonder why they constructed such high seats which takes one closer to the moon than the pitch...
THE Malaysian hockey team ended their Tour of Europe on a high when they beat Spain 3-2 in a highly entertaining match last night.
Malaysia went in the Tour to prepare for the Olympic Qualifiers next year, and were hammered by the Netherlands, but in Spain they picked up momentum and only lost 2-0 to the Spanish senior side in the first friendly.
Yesterday, the Spaniards drew first blood off Roc Oliva in a fourth minute penalty corner which beat goalkeeper S. Kumar low on the left.
A field goal by Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin in the 42nd minute was a top of the circle free-hit set-piece perfected after receiving the ball from Amin Rahim.
However, Roc Oliva again scored off a penalty corner, this time he beat goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin in the 49th minute with a left high ball.
Malaysia pushed forward and Faiz Helmi’s 54th minute effort landed Malaysia a crucial boost.
“To a certain degree, we achieved what we wanted to in Europe as there was improvement in some of the departments, especially the set-pieces,” said chief coach Tai Beng Hai.
After losing 2-0 to Spain in the last match, a strategy was hatched and the players did well to follow the script.
“Pointers picked up from the earlier match were used to stop Spain’s transfer from right to left as they used long balls to beat us.
“My midfielders kept a tight control of the centre and intercepted Spain’s build out of defense and this gave the forwards counter-attack chances and we scored twice off such occasions,” said Beng Hai.
The coach, who went to Europe without four of his regulars to play nine matches, now has more options to choose from as some of the replacements have shown good progress.
In Spain, the national players beat three top Spanish clubs – Real Polo Club (4-2), Athletic Terrassa HC (6-2) and Egara HC (2-0).
They then beat the Spanish Under-21 side 3-0 and then were held to a 1-1 draw.
In the Netherlands, the Malaysian side were hammered 9-1 and 5-1.
THE Malaysian hockey team lost 2-0 to world No 6 Spain in a friendly last night, but coach Tai Beng Hai felt a draw would have been a fairer result.
The team is in Europe to play a series on friendlies, and will play another match with the Spain seniors before wrapping up their fixtures.
Yesterday, the coach rested No 1 goalkeeper S. Kumar and fielded Roslan Jamaluddin as he prepares a team for the Olympic Qualifiers early next year.
“We started slow as we had to fall back into our own defense because of frequent interchanging between the Spanish midfielders.
“Play for both sides mostly revolved around midfield and counter-attacks to break the deadlock in the first 15 minutes of the match. However, we had better possession in the second half and could have forced a draw but for muffed chances,” said Beng Hai.
Malaysia had four penalty corners and failed to convert any, while the Spanish had eight and scored one.
“We had a chance to draw level after Spain scored in the 29th minute, but were unfortunate that the ball bounced awkwardly in the final moment after a good transfer among four players.
“And the 66th minute penalty corner goal from Spain shut the door for at least a draw as we were keeping possession and pushing forward at that moment,” lamented Beng Hai.
The first goal resulted from a long corner where the Spanish right wing dribbled into the left side of the Malaysian circle. He them pushes a harmless ball across the goal but defender Amin Rahim left his man on the far post and tried to intercept it at the near post.
Just then an rushing goalkeeper Roslan tried to kick the ball but was blocked by Amin. The loose ball rolled past the front of the Malaysian goal to the unmarked Pau Quemada at the far post for him to stop, and then push it in.
As for the second goal, it resulted from a Spanish sideline free-hit which was taken quickly and in the two v two situation, the Spanish player crossed each other but the umpire allowed play.
Our players were slow to react and the player with the ball dribbled into the circle with erase.
Amin tackled the player and the umpire interpreted the tackle as stick check and awarded a penalty corner which resulted Jamie Dabanch scoring with a right high flick to beat Roslan.
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