KUALA LUMPUR – National men’s hockey head coach, Arul Selvaraj, was not entirely impressed with his team’s performance despite the Speedy Tigers mauling of Indonesia in their third group match at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Arul said he expects his charges to learn from their mistakes and work on them before their next outing, this time against South Korea.
“Even though we managed to secure the win and score by a significant margin, I was not really impressed with my team’s performance.
“Our players made several silly errors throughout the game, and their decision-making was poor, leading to our opponents taking advantage of us at various points in the game.
“We did earn many penalty corners in this match, but I’m disappointed that we were not able to execute them perfectly. We seriously need to work on this before our next fixture,” Arul said.
He also mentioned the team is well aware of the threats posed by the Koreans and hopes to get a favourable result against them.
“The players will be resting and focusing on their recovery for the next 24 hours, and the coaching team will take the time to conduct an in-depth analysis of the South Korean gameplay.
“We have a favourable record against them as we recently secured consecutive victories (1-0 and 6-2) against them in the Asian Champions Trophy.
“We are confident in repeating our winning record against them, but the Asian Games is a different challenge.
“I believe that South Korea will be well-prepared to face us in the upcoming match,” Arul added.
Today, Malaysia defeated Indonesia 9-2 at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park hockey stadium.
This win came on the back of 9-0 and 11-1 drubbings of Thailand and Oman, respectively.
Ashran Hamsani (fifth minute), Firhan Ashaari (17th), Najmi Farizal Jazlan (19th, 35th), Faizal Saari (33rd), Shello Silverius (38th), Azrai Aizad Kamal (42nd), Razie Rahim (43rd), and Aminuddin Zain (48th), all scored for the Speedy Tigers.
Ahdan Asasi (15th) and Aulia Al Ardh (55th) replied for Indonesia.
Malaysia will face South Korea, ranked 12th in the world, in their fourth group match on Saturday.
The Speedy Tigers are currently ranked 10th in the FIH world rankings with 2,041.37 points. Their best finish in the Asian Games came in the 2018 edition in Jakarta, where they won the silver medal. – September 28, 2023