Golden chance for Malaysia to win maiden SAS Cup

Ipoh, 15 March 2013: Hosts Malaysia, who have never won the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, have a golden chance to win the 22nd edition here on Sunday, if they keep their form going for another two matches. The team displayed quality hockey under the new South African coach Paul Revington and looks good for their maiden victory. But in Australia they have a hard nut to crack. They may take solace with two key Aussie strikers in the injured list – Timothy Bates and Daniel Beale.
On the other hand, defending champions New Zealand managed to bounce back into contention by beating a young India and with both the table toppers Australia and hosts Malaysia settling for a draw on Thursday, it is a golden chance for the Kiwis to make to the finals if they can beat a Australia in the final round-robin league on Saturday.

All the three teams have a chance to enter the final and fight for the Cup while Pakistan, India and Korea had to be content with the minor placings. The Kookaburras with two wins and two draws have eight points in their kitty and need only a draw against the Kiwis to enter the title match while New Zealand are in a must-win situation.

Meanwhile, hosts Malaysia are in a better position as they will be playing their last match against India after the Australia-New Zealand game and will be aware of the situation. Only if Australia lose to New Zealand, Malaysia have to beat or draw with India.

Only if Australia and Malaysia lose their matches, New Zealand will top the pool and Australia will go through on better goal average.

The ever-smiling Indian coach, Michael Nobbs, is happy with the performance of the boys. He feel that the team is confident and were not bogged down by the loss to New Zealand.

“As I said earlier, the boys are learning and playing good quality hockey. Translating that into results will take time. Patience in the key word and I am willing to wait and see them develop into match winners,’’ he said.

“We will still have a chance to go to the podium if we can beat Malaysia and that is our goal. With the home crowd turning up in full numbers the pressure will be tremendous and our youngsters will have a good learning experience. They will know what pressure is. It is good for them to play such matches. They did well against Pakistan and there is no reason why they can’t do it again,” he added.

“This whole tournament is a chance for me to watch the boys, identify grey areas and rectify the mistakes. The boys are learning how tough it is at this level and it is a good learning process. We will go all out for a win and a good placing,” he concluded.
Malaysia coach Paul Revingon said that he was extremely happy with the way the team has come up thus far in the tournament.

“`We had a tough match against Pakistan. It is always difficult to play quality teams like Pakistan and it was one of the best matches in the tournament so far. This is our best chance to go for the title. I don’t want the players to relax. Last year in the Champions Challenge we beat Korea in the pool matches but lost in the crucial knock-out stage. So we are focused not to make the same mistakes and the team is all egged up for the final stretch,’’ he said.

“India is a very strong opponent. Though they are a young team they have played quality hockey and we respect them. India is a dangerous opponent on any day. We will try our best. We have been playing well in the last five minutes and we will try to keep it up,” he added.

“Even if New Zealand beats Australia, we will not relax against India as we would like to go to the final in a winning mood and for us every match is important. My main goal is to bring Malaysia back into the elite and to qualify for the senior World Cup. We have the Asia Cup in August and the World Series Hockey in our mind,” he said.