Pablo’s loving it here MALAYSIA HOCKEY LEAGUE

Argentine has no regrets turning down national call-up to play for Terengganu

KUALA LUMPUR: Argentine Pablo Javier Trevisan had turned down his country’s callup to feature in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL).

And the 30-year-old midfielder has had no regrets. He is enjoying himself playing for double champions Terengganu in the Premier Division.

“I have featured for the Argentina national team for eight years. I felt that the time had come for me to play in hockey leagues in any country that needed my services,” said Trevisan, who was the member of the Argentina team who won a bronze in the World Cup in The Hague, Holland, in 2014.

“It’s a good experience playing in Malaysia ... I’m also happy with the Terengganu team’s set-up.

“I believe that Terengganu have a good chance to win a fourth league title with four matches left to play.

“We will take it one match at a time,” added Trevisan, who travelled 16,000km from his hometown of Quilmes to play here.

Terengganu and Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) are joint leaders in the eightteam standings with 26 points after 10 matches. The east coast team have a better goal difference.

Today, Terengganu will face third-placed Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium while KLHC will play minnows Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School (SSTMI) at the SSTMI pitch in Bandar Penawar.

Terengganu coach Sarjit Singh is concerned with injuries to his two Pakistani defenders – Muhammad Irfan Aslam and Shakeer Ahmad Butt.

“Irfan won’t feature against UniKL as he is still recovering from hairline fracture on his right thumb. He injured in Wednesday’s match (a 1-1 draw against Tenaga).

“As for Shakeer, I need him in defence. So, although he’s down with hamstring injury, I’m considering fielding him.

“It is not going to be easy against UniKL ... they have a good set o f players. We have to wary of them, ,” said Sarjit, whose team beat UniKL L 3-0 in the first-round match.

UniKL coach A. ArulselvarajA described Terengganu a s being “in a class of their own”.

“We need to avoid concedingc unnecessary penalty cor rners and keep it tight in defenc ce,” said Arulselvaraj, who is clearly wary of Terengganu de efender Jang Jong-hyun.

The South Korean has scored 19 goals from penalty c corner setpieces in 10 matches.