News

15-06 Rajan KL players told to buck or get beaten

2010-06-15 23:06:00

KUALA Lumpur coach K. Rajan is concerned with his team’s performance in the men’s hockey competition.

KL, who are gunning to win the Sukma title for a fourth consecutive time since the 2004 Games in Seremban, were outplayed by Malacca and beaten 1-5 in a Group A match on Sunday.

The defeat put them in second place in the group and it gave them a quarter-final match against Terengganu at the Malacca Hockey Stadium today.

Rajan said that nothing went right for them in the match against Malacca.

“My players need to buck up if they hope to get the better of Terengganu, who have been the most impressive team in the competition in winning all their matches thus far. They cannot be missing chances as they did against Malacca,” he said.

Terengganu are in the quarter-finals with wins over Selangor (5-3), Pahang (3-1) and Kelantan (5-4).

Rajan added that they had to be wary of the threat posed by Terengganu’s national forward Faisal Saari, who can score both field and penalty corner goals.

Malacca will be up against Johor for a place in the semi-finals and coach K. Balakrishnan said that they can expect a tough match.

“Johor have a balanced side and we too have to watch out for their national penalty corner flicker, Baljit (Singh Sarjab),” he said.

“We have to play a cautious game and I hope my players will rise to the occasions as they did against KL.

“We have never won the Sukma hockey title and with the home ground advantage, we hope to nail it this time.”

The Star