Faizal Saari – Hope of the Tenaga National Berhad in the Malaysian Hockey League
Tenaga National Berhad (TNB) is banking on Faizal Saari to take revenge from Sapura by outplaying it in the Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) semi-finals scheduled to be played on October 19, at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Malaysia.
TNB lost to Sapura earlier during the stage on aggregate basis in the previous edition of the league.
Being the highest scorer of the tournament with 18 goals to his credit, Faizal Saari is on the roll for his team. He is the only player who registered four hat-tricks in the last ten games.
TNB’s coach, Lailin Abu Hassan, expressed full confidence in Faizal Saari hoping that he will continue with his outstanding performance in the semi-final stage.
The coach while appraising the seasoned striker stated, “I’ve been very impressed by Faizal’s performance and I am banking on him to continue his good form”.
TNB powered a commanding 2-0 win over Sapura in the Premier Division of the league to earn third place at the point-chart.
In the meantime, Tenaga delivered impressive performances against Yayasan Negeri Sembilan (YNS) in the knockout stage, winging both the quarter-finals by 5-1 and 4-1 respectively, with a total aggregate of 9-2.
The coach vowed to take the opponents down saying, “I think we have the firepower to reverse our defeat to them last season. We drew the first leg 2-2 but lost 2-0 in the return leg. On top of that, the players are fired up to reach the final again”.
As TNB is flying high, Sapura is facing tough challenges in the knockout round. It lost the first-leg quarter-final by 2-1 while managed an average 2-0 victory in the second-leg.
Even Sapura’s coach, I. Vickneswaran, acknowledged that Sapura’s overall aggregate of 3-2 was quite low as compared to Tenaga’s 9-2.
He was not satisfied at all with the performance of the players. Meanwhile, he was also of the view that his team was tired after contesting ten back-to-back games.
He, at the same time applauded the opponent’s game saying, “Tenaga are playing very well at the moment. They look very promising this season to reach the final”.
Apart from the previous results, Faizal Saari is expected to continue the excellent show to register a victory against Sapura in the semi-final.
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