Till full of est in pu suit of a place in t e Olympic Games
ANTWERP: There’s still hope, albeit slim, for six Malaysian players to end their playing careers with an Olympic appearance.
All they have to do is help Malaysia beat Ireland at the KHC Dragons Stadium today and finish fifth at the World Hockey League Semi-Finals in Antwerp, Belgium.
The fifth spot will make Malaysia the third reserves for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
The six – Azlan Misron, 32; C. Baljit Singh ,29; Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin, 29; Mohd Shukri Mutalib, 29; Mohd Shahrun Nabil, 30; and Nabil Fiqri Mohd Nor, 29 – are at the tailend of their careers and have never played in the Olympics.
Even 37-year-old goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin is also looking for an Olympic swansong, having played in the 2000 Games in Sydney.
Going by their 4-2 win over Ireland in the group stage, Malaysia clearly stand a good chance of finishing fifth.
“Everything points to the fifth-placed team having a good chance to qualify for the Olympics ... and I want that team to be Malaysia,” said defender Azlan.
“With one supreme effort, we can achieve it.We know what’s at stake and also how the Irish play. It’s not going to be easy but we need to believe in ourselves and not let this opportunity go.”
His defensive partner Baljit even went as far as saying that “we have played some good hockey and were just unlucky against India in the last-eight match”.
“We made a couple of mistakes that proved costly. We won’t repeat the mistakes. We played as a unit against France and each player complemented the other,” said Baljit.
“We’re fully aware that we need to win this tie (against Ireland) to achieve our target (of Olympic qualification). So, we’ll try our very best ... nothing else matters.”
Malaysia lost 3-2 to India in the quarter-finals and beat France 4-1 in the fifth-eighth classification match.
Baljit said that he would ensure that the team continue to play an attacking game against Ireland today.
“At the same time, we need to stay within the game plan that the coaches have come up with,” he explained.
“It’s well and good to be defensive-minded but I think we have learnt that by attacking we can get a result too.
“Ireland tend to play at a fast pace and do not give up easily ... they will come at you if they’re given the room and space to attack.
“How we contain them will be crucial .... and we also cannot waste the chances we create.”
Malaysia may have missed out on automatic qualification for the Olympics, let’s hope they don’t throw away the chance of hopefully making it as one of the reserves.