Down as the defending champion, the National Men’s Hockey Team opened the 2023 SEA Games, Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the Hockey In The Hall event held at Dinosaur Park Hall, Chroy Changvar with victory after beating the hosts, Cambodia 10-1.
Faridzul Afiq Mohd, who opened the scoring as early as the first minute of the match through a penalty corner goal, emerged as a hat-trick scorer in the opening act after scoring two more goals from the field in the 23rd and another penalty corner goal in the 32nd minute.
The opening match today also saw Abdul Khaliq Hamirin score two personal goals through field goals in the fifth and 33rd minutes, while the other five goals were contributed by Danial Asyraf Abdul Ghani (m’8 FG), Muhamad Izham Azhar (m’22 PC), Muhammad Firdaus Omar (m’22 PC), Syed Mohamad Syafiq Syed Cholan (m’28 PC) and Mohd Norhafizie Jamil Azomi (m’40 FG)
Head Coach of the Hockey Squad in the National Men’s Hall, Mohd Hanip Che Halim was pleased with the performance that his men had performed in the first act but still felt there was a weakness that needed to be fixed as his coaching squad conceded a goal.
“Although we scored five goals from the penalty corner shot, there were some advantages of penalty corner shots that we got that we didn’t manage to finish with the net. One is due to the newly installed rubber floor surface causing the ball to stick somewhat and another reason due to the lack of focus by the players themselves which makes it not finished with the net.
“If you look at the tactical point of view of the team applied today, I am satisfied that the players are following what we want and we will continue to improve every flaw or error from one match to another.
“Planning to meet the Philippines tomorrow, I want the players to be more stable or “settle down” than today’s match because there are some of our players who have just arrived joining the team.
“I also hope that the players will be quick to adapt to the situation here because even though we are playing in the hall, the atmosphere in Cambodia is warmer than usual and I hope we will continue to collect the next three points for the second action,” he explained.
The second act of the round robin round will resume tomorrow where the National Men’s Team will go down in action against the Philippines at 2:00 pm (Malaysian time).
