Hockey World Cup: Malaysia aim to avoid repeat of Dutch disaster in opener on Saturday
SINAR DAILY REPORTER11 Jan 2023 08:23pm
The national hockey team will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the 7-0 thrashing at the hands of the Netherlands when they face the same opponenents in their opening match of the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup in Rourkela, India on Saturday.
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The squad have settled down quickly since they arrived in Rourkela, near here, where they will play their first two matches at the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium.
Malaysia will open their campaign against three-time world champions the Netherlands on Saturday, before facing Chile in their second match at the same venue on Jan 16. They will then move to Bhubaneshwar, where they play their final Pool C match against New Zealand at the Kalinga Stadium on Jan 19.
Head coach Arul Selvaraj's charges will be aiming for an improved outing in their ninth appearance at the World Cup this time around, having finished 15th in the 2018 World Cup also held in Bhubaneswar.
It has been smooth sailing in their preparations thus far, since team arrived in Rourkela on Monday and Arul is keen to ensure the final preparations are on track as they prepare for the opening match, which will also likely be their toughest match of the preliminary round against the Dutch.
"We arrived in Rourkela and went straight to their training centre, which is situated next to the airport and also next to the hockey stadium. We had our first training session at 7am the next morning. Today, we had an early breakfast at 7am, because our training session was scheduled at 10am and we're now planning for a friendly match tomorrow (Jan 11) against Spain," said Arul.
"We will discuss with the Spanish team how we want to hold our friendly match, whether two or four quarters and other methods which would allow both teams' preparations for the tournament, as we begin our campaign against the Netherlands on Saturday."
Goalkeeper coach S. Kumar was the custodian in the 2018 squad which also faced the Netherlands in their opening match then and he has reminded the team that they should look back and learn from the mistakes and ensure there is no repeat of the 7-0 beating Malaysia suffered at the hands of the Dutch then.
"It is the same opening match again, against the Netherlands. So, we have players who are from that squad and they should remember what went wrong and where we made the mistakes and we must not allow a repeat of such a defeat this time around. We are here as a team and everyone has to do their part," said Kumar.
Malaysia are scheduled to play a friendly against Spain, who are drawn in Pool D alongside hosts India, England and Wales, at 5pm local time today (8pm Malaysian time).
