Kenta a true Blue Samurai..

By FIH

KENTA Tanaka confirmed himself as the star of the men’s Hockey World League Round 2 event in Tacarigua, Trinidad and Tobago, scoring to help Japan’s Samurais to a 2-1 victory over Canada in the competition final.
  Lively attacker Tanaka netted his ninth goal in six matches with a 35th minute strike to level the match after Scott Tupper’s penalty stroke had given Canada the lead four minutes earlier. Takuro Sasaki converted a penalty corner effort in the 40th minutes, a goal which proved to be the winner. 
  As well as taking the tournament top scorer award with all nine of his goals being scored from open play, Tanaka was also named as the player of the tournament in the post event awards. Trinidad & Tobago’s Tariq Marcano was named as the best young player, while USA’s Brandon Karess took the best goalkeeper award.  
  The result brought both the competition and the second round of the men’s Hockey World League to an end, meaning that the teams to qualify for the Hockey World League Semi-Finals, which are qualification competitions for the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018, are now known. 
  The top two finishers from the men’s Round 2 events in Dhaka (4-12 Mar 2017), Belfast (11-19 Mar 2017) and Tacarigua, (25 Mar-2 Apr 2017) have all qualified for the Hockey World League Semi-Finals, being joined in the World Cup qualifier phase by the two highest ranked of the third placed finishers from those three events. Tacarigua top two Japan and Canada join Malaysia and China, who took the top two places at the event in Dhaka, as well as Ireland and France, who finished first and second respectively in Belfast. 
  The two highest ranked of the third placed finishers from each event also progress through to the next phase of the competition.
   Egypt - who today move up one place in the FIH Hero World Rankings to 19th - finished third in Dhaka, a result which proved to be enough for their progression.
   Scotland (WR: 23) were the third-place finisher In Belfast, and their superior ranking over USA (WR: 26), who finished third in Tacarigua, means that they also move through to the Hockey World League Semi-Finals which take place this summer. 
   
  Final standings
1: Japan
2: Canada
3: USA
4: Russia
5: Trinidad & Tobago
6: Switzerland
7: Chile
8: Barbados

Open trials for Barcelona Veteran World Cup...

THE Sultan Ahmad Shah hockey team will hold an Open trial to select players for the Veteran World Cup in Barcelona which will be held on July 27-Aug 6 next year.
  The Open trials will be held at the MPPJ Stadium on Saturday and Sunday from 5-7pm.
  All Malaysian's are welcome and the age group categories are 40, 45, 50, 55 and above.
  The same Open trials will also select players for the Grand Masters Asia Cup in Hiroshima in October 2017 and so, players in their 60s and 65s are also encouraged to attend.
  For further enquiries, Surindar Singh at 0122841238 or Satvinder Singh at 0173333548.

JHL: Johor Juniors win shoot-out

JOHOR Juniors came back twice in regulation time to beat Olak-NurInsafi in a shoot-out in Division One of the Junior Hockey League yesterday.
  Olak-NurInsafi took the lead, and then were leading 2-1, but Johor Juniors failed to be broken and equalised before winning the shoot-out 3-2.
  Johor Juniors received two points while Olak-NurInsafi one point.
  Johor got their goals off Shafiq Hassan (32nd) and Kamarulzaman Kamaruddin (58th) while the Olak-NurInsafi goals were scored by Nur Najibrullah Ramle (22nd) and Adam Hafiz Hrsikesa (50th).
  "Nothing went right in our season opening JHL match, we took the lead twice but fumbled and it was a nightmarish shoot-out," said Olak-NurInsafi team manager Joseph de Silva.
  Johor team manager Shahbuddin Royani said: "We need to improve in our penalty corners as we had 11 in the match but failed to make them count.
  "But considering the fact that I had players as young as 15-years-old in the team, the two points is a good result to start our campaign as my boys showed fighting spirit to come back from being a goal down twice in the match."
  It was the only Division One match yesterday.
  RESULTS: Division One -- Johor Juniors 2 Olak-NurInsafi 2 (Johor won shoot-out 3-2).
  Division Two: Group B -- MISCF-UFL 1 Terengganu Juniors 2, MSSWPKL 3 MCKK 3 (MCKK win shoot-out 2-0); Group C: Young Hurricanes 1 TBSS Tampin 3, SSTMI Juniors 4 MBMB Warriors 2.
  GIRLS' Group A: USM Juniors 1 Sabah Sports School 5.

Olak-NurInsafi kick-out indiscipline boys...

Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School's Norfatin Nabila Mohamad (left) and KLSS Wipers' team captain Nur Suraya Ashikin Mohd Zuraimi tussle for the ball in the TNB Malaysian Junior Hockey League Girls Division at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium Saturday. SSTMI won 1-0.

OLD LA Sallians Association of Klang-NurInsafi dropped two players due to indiscipline, something which the pioneer Junior Hockey League (JHL) club has never tolerated.

  They will head to Batu Pahat to play Johor Juniors Sunday with 20 players, but team manager Joseph de Silva has no regrets.

  The JHL allows registration of 22 players, with 18 registered for every match.

  "We dropped Kavinash Panicker and Ekmar Isa due to discipline problems and even though we were not allowed to register two more players to replace them, we would rather play with less than have indiscipline players on the squad," said Olak-NurInsafi manager Joseph de Silva,

  The players were dropped for failing to turn up for training, as they were only interested in playing friendly games. And as registration had already closed on March 15, the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) did not allow replacement.

  "These two players were given a chance to play in a Division One outfit, but they blew it because of their attitude. They only wanted to play friendlies in the run-up to the JHL, but refused to come for training sessions," said De Silva.

  There will only be one Division One match today, while the fixtures are heavy on Division Two.

  "We did not do well last season (finished seventh) but with the inclusion of five NurInsafi players, we hope to be among the top-four."

  The five NurInsafi players have experience playing in the Malaysia Hockey League in Division One this season and should form the back-bone of Olak.

  RESULTS -- Girls Group A: Wipers 0 SSTMI 1; Group B: USM 6 Zaaba 1, Uniten 1 Johor Juniors 1.

  SUNDAY: Division One -- Johor Juniors v Olak-NurInsafi (Batu Pahat, 5pm).

  Division Two: Group B -- MISCF-UFL v Terengganu Juniors (KLHA, 8pm), MSSWPKL v MCKK (KPM, 5pm); Group C: Young Hurricanes v TBSS Tampin (Malacca, 5pm), SSTMI Juniors v MBMB Warriors (SSTMI, 5pm).

JHL: UniKL scrape past BJSS Juniors...

Pic: Taufik Kamjai celebrating after scoring UniKL's first goal.

UNIVERSITI Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) scraped past Bukit Jalil SportS School (BJSS) Juniors 2-0 in the only Division One Junior Hockey League match Friday.
  Three other Division One matches had to be postponed as their players will head to India this weekend to play in the Asian Schools tournament.
  However, leg cramps were the order of the day in this Under-19 tournament, as two UniKL and four BJSS Juniors fell like pins in the last quarter.
  BJSS Juniors coach S. Prakash attributed it to the recently concluded National Under-16 tournament.
  "All my players went back to their states to play in the National Under-16 and have yet to fully recover from their injuries and stamina was a little low. I'm glad we did not lose by a bigger margin," said Prakash.
  UniKL coach Arul Selvaraj also placed cramps on his check-list.
  "This (cramps) can't be happening to such young players and its on my checklist. However, it was a decent performance from a team that only had five players that had previous experience playing in the junior league.
  "Actually it was only their third match together, and they lost the earlier two friendlies by big margins and so this win is a welcome relief," said Arul Selvaraj.
  UniKL got their goals off Taufik Kamjai (seventh) and Chairil Rusli (39th).
  RESULTS: Division One: UniKL Young Guns 2 BJSS Juniors 0.
  DIVISION TWO: Group A -- MSSP Stinger 0 MSS Kedah 3, MSSC-UFL Penang 1 MSSPP-USM 7, USM Juniors 0 MSN Young Lions 2; Group C: Johor Baru HA 1 Datuk Taha 1 (Johor Baru won shoot-out 4-2).
  GIRLS' -- Group A: MSN Kedah 2 Sabah SS 0, USM Juniors 0 CBN 3.
  SATURDAY -- Girls Group A: Wipers v SSTMI (KLHA, 5pm); Group B: USM v Zaaba (USM, 6pm), Uniten v Johor Juniors (KPM, 5pm).
  SUNDAY: Division One -- Johor Juniors v Olak-NurInsafi (Batu Pahat, 5pm).
  Division Two: Group B -- MISCF-UFL v Terengganu Juniors (KLHA, 8pm), MSSWPKL v MCKK (KPM, 5pm); Group C: Young Hurricanes v TBSS Tampin (Malacca, 5pm), SSTMI Juniors v MBMB Warriors (SSTMI, 5pm).