Malaysian Hockey Team optimistic for positive conclusion at Asian Champions Trophy – Hockey News
Despite an unimpressive start in the Asian Champions Trophy, the Men’s hockey team of Malaysia is looking to end the campaign with a positive note, as they are going to face Japan in the third-place playoff match at the Ordos Hockey Stadium in China.
They lost the first two games, which was a bad start in the six-nation tournament. However, they flexed up their muscles and improved their game in the remaining fixtures. They are going to face Japanese for the third place playoff game to whom they defeated
by a single goal in the group match, 3-2. They are struggling to improve their position in the World ranking and are quite optimistic to conclude the event with a bronze medal.
Malaysian hockey coach Tai Beng Hai is quite confident for the victory, as the 15th ranked team has an edge over the 16th ranked Japan. He was of the opinion that they had contested the tournament quite impressively and bronze medal
will be a satisfactory ending. He said, “It will be good to come away with the bronze medal. We have shown that we can play well. The final was out of our reach after we lost the opening two matches against Pakistan and South Korea. But we did well to win
two and draw one of the next three matches.”
He continued that he had no intentions to interfere in the team for the third-place playoff game and would test the same squad. In order to give more chances to youngsters, they are mulling to include one youngster in the match.
Amir Farid Ahmad Fuzi is in-form player of Malaysia who helped his side to win the game against Japan. Another name in the list of best performances is Fitri Saari and Roslan Jamaluddin – the goalie could have been replaced with youngsters.
Beng was of the view that their main target will be to use maximum chances in the game in order to hold their grip over the opposition. On the other side, Pakistan is going to play against India in the title fighting match.
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