Dharmaraj: Malaysia can reach semis

women’s team head coach, K. Dharmaraj admits that his players stand a good chance of marching to the semi-finals of the Asian Games in JakartaPalembang which begins next month.

This is based on the draw issued by the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) which sees Malaysia drawn in Group A together with China, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“I feel that we are in a good position to advance in the tournament because we have a good record against some of the other teams in the group such as China and Japan.

“For example in the last three meetings against Japan we have managed to win two out of the three matches.

“Our record against China is not that bad either as we lost by the slimmest of margins to them.

“And against the other two teams, Hong Kong and Taiwan, we should not encounter any problems either. I feel that we are in with a good chance for a top two finish in the group stage which should enable us to reach the sime-finals,” said Dharmaraj.

He however reiterated that he does not want his charges to be too confident that they can easily get a place among the top four teams.

“Let us focus on one match at a time first,” stressed Dharmaraj.

Since the last three editions of the Games, the national women’s team have often failed to reach the sime-finals where teams such as China, Japan, India and South Korea have managed to do so, with Malaysia’s best showing being a fifth place finish.

However, taking into account their recent performances, the national women’s team has what it takes to break the dominance of the four teams who are regarded as the best in Asia, provided of course they are able to maintain consistently good form during competition in Indonesia.