Wan Haziq powers KL to National Under-14 title
SEREMBAN: Wan Haziq Hisyamuddin Wan Ameer Ruzman was the hero for Kuala Lumpur, scoring the golden goal in the 75th minute to steer his team to a 3-2 win over Johor and retain the National Under-14 title at the Seremban II Hockey Stadium.
It was KL’s sixth consecutive title since the inception of the tournament in 2007.
Fallah Hassan Shahrom Jamil gave KL the lead in the 22nd minute before Johor equalised in the 34th off a penalty corner taken by Mohd Haikal Safaruddin.
KL regained the lead in the 60th minute off a field goal by Kavinash Panicker Thevendran but Johor equalised two minutes from regulation time through MohdShafiq Hassan to take match into sudden death extra-time.
Five minutes later, Wan Haziq scored the winning goal for KL.
Johor team manager Anuar Sarmin said it was unfortunate that they failed to win as they had created enough chances.
“It was the team’s best performance of the tournament but we just didn’t have the luck to get the winning goal despite dominating the second-half,” he said.
“The good news is that we have seven players who are eligible to play next year.”
KL coach Mohd Madzli Ikmar said they were fortunate to win as Johor had come close to upsetting them.
“I told my players to be patient and we took our chance well in extra-time to score through Wan Haziq. I’m proud of my players,” said Madzli.
Hosts Negri Sembilan came back from two goals down to edge Perak 3-2 to take third place.
Perak took a 2-0 lead by the sixth minute through Mohd Najmi Hayazi and Syed Muhammad Syakir Syed Cholam.
Negri fought back gallantly and drew level with strikes by Mohd Hilmi Hairuddin (18th) and Jefri Jaafar (34th).
The teams remained tied at 2-2 at the final whistle forcing the match went into extra-time with Jefri scoring the golden goal off a penalty corner in the 73rd minute.