DUAL MISSION
Oltmans’ men have an eye on 2020 Olympics
MALAYSIA will be on a dual mission when they play in the Bhubaneswar World Cup in India on Nov 28-Dec 16. The first is to advance to the knockout stage, and the second as an early preparation to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal said: “As the coach (Roelant Oltmans) has said, we are in the toughest group in the World Cup and will need to beat at least one team to advance to the next round.
“And advancing will also give us an option to move up the ranking a little and make it easier to qualify for the Olympics.”
Malaysia are in Group D with three former champions — Netherlands, Germany and Pakistan. And the early indications are that coach Oltmans will be gunning to beat Pakistan while giving the other two teams a run for their money.
“We will be hosting an Olympic qualifier in April next year where ranking will play an important role. And that’s why I see the World Cup as a good chance to not only play against the best teams in the world, but also come back wiser for a shot at qualifying for the Olympics,” said Subahan.
Oltmans said yesterday Malaysia’s first opponents Netherlands are good enough to play in the medal rounds.
“Netherlands beat Belgium 4-3 in a friendly recently and I believe both the teams are good enough to challenge for a medal. We are in a tough group, with Germany also a World Cup contender.
And how have Malaysia been progressing?
“We have two world class flickers in Razie (Rahim) and Faizal (Saari) who I reckon are in the top-10 bracket.
“Faizal has been flicking well in training as well as the ACT (Asian Champions Tophy where he scored eight goals) and now our focus is to win penalty corners.
“You need to win them first to give Razie and Faizal chances to score. We have been training on how to win them, we have our plans,” said Oltmans.
Malaysia will play three friendly matches against New Zealand on Friday, Nov 20 and 22 at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil where Oltmans will try out some of the set-pieces to win penalty corners.