The National Men’s and Women’s Hall Hockey Squad managed to continue to ensure no dropouts at the Hockey In The Hall event, the 2023 SEA Games, Phnom Penh, Cambodia which took place at Dinosaur Park Hall, Chroy Changvar, today.
However the National Women’s Team had to be content to share one point with Thailand after both teams were tied without any nets while the National Men’s Team continued to add three more points after beating Singapore 5-0.
The National Men’s team that went down first in the third act today also received opposition from their opponents when the net curtain opened in the eighth minute through Danial Asyraf Abdul Ghani’s field-goal goal.
Entering the second quarter, the advantage of a penalty corner shot was best used by Muhamad Izham Azhar in the 13th minute, closing out the first half with Malaysia having a two-goal advantage in front.
Continuing in the second half, another penalty corner goal advantage leveraged the national camp this time in the 25th minute of Faridzul Afiq Mohd’s turn to score as the scorer before Syed Mohamad Syafiq Syed Cholan added another goal a minute later.
Three minutes before the actual match ended, Muhamad Izham Azhar again ensured the advantage of the penalty corner shot was best used and the net capped the third act of the national team which has now collected nine points overall.
The head coach of the National Men’s Hockey Squad, Mohd Hanip Che Halim described his players as not playing on their actual performance despite securing a third consecutive victory.
“Alhamdulillah with today’s win and we are still on the right track in collecting three points in each game. However our game today has deteriorated a bit and some mistakes have been identified made by the players today.
“We scored nine penalty corner shots and scored three of them. We also saw the penalty corner shot today not being and among the identified causes which was a mistake from our own when the injectors made the pass.
“Meeting with Thailand tomorrow, we will make some changes in terms of tactical as well as game play. We will go down on a mission to continue to collect three points for the fourth game,” he said, who was contacted after the end of the match.
In the meantime, one point scored today was a relief for the Head Coach of the Women’s Hockey Team, Mohd Badrul Hisham Osman, when his men managed to ensure they still did not drop any points after three games.
Malaysia is currently second with seven points, sharing the same points as Thailand, but a three-goal difference that is advantaged to Malaysia, puts the National Women’s Team, above the Thai team.
“The players have shown a good game but we will continue to improve our performances so that the targets that have been set to the team can be achieved and we will continue to remind the players not to miss every opportunity to produce the net.
“The goalkeeper, Farah Ayuni gave his best performance today where he managed to negate every opportunity that the opponent had and use all his experience to overcome every attack of the opponent.
“I also commend every one of my players who have given very good cooperation to perform as a team and play their part well when every assignment is given.
“We’ll do our best for the fourth game against the hosts tomorrow and try to make sure the three points are ours. We will do the homework on the opposing team and plan the tactical that will be applied to tomorrow’s match.
“The host will definitely play so hard to try to steal points from us. I would always remind the players never to take the match easy tomorrow and take advantage of all the opportunities they have,” he said.
The National Men’s Team will go down to meet Thailand tomorrow for the fourth leg of the Round Robin Round at 4:30 pm (Malaysian time) while the National Women’s Team will meet Cambodia at 5:45 pm (Malaysian time).
