National junior hockey team manager, I. Vikneswaran has called upon the Young Tigers to step up and salvage the pride of the nation after mounting criticism over the team’s failure to qualify for the quarter-finals of the FIH Men’s Hockey Junior World Cup.
Watching the team’s enthusiasm ebbing away, Vikneswaran said the Young Tigers, ranked 8th in the FIH Junior World Rankings, must start ‘cleaning the mess’ created by defeating the 16th- ranked Egyptians in Monday’s 9-16th classification match.
“You are not here on holiday. As you can see, we have faced a lot of challenges and criticism regarding the performance of the national juniors. The number of goals scored against us is not good, whether it is a field goal or penalty corner,” said Vikneswaran, who is managing the team for the second consecutive time after the 2021 JWC in Bhubaneswar, India.
“These are situations that have already happened, and there is nothing we can do about it. But we must start taking responsibility for what has happened. Moving forward against Egypt, we have to make sure we win that game and avoid going into the 13-16th classification playoff. We must stay between 9-12th and finish our journey in the best possible position.
“This team has to play to salvage its own pride and that of the country. Being put in a tough group is no excuse. You have to keep on working hard. Earn your respect,” adding that it’s about time the Young Tigers move forward in the right direction.
In other classification matches, Belgium plays Canada, Chile versus South Africa, and New Zealand goes into a showdown with South Korea.
He added that the other strong contender in the classification matches is Belgium. He cited that at the 2021 JWC, the Malaysians defeated Chile (2-1) in the first game, drew 1-1 with Belgium who were favorites of the tournament, and defeated African Cup champions South Africa (4-3).
“The Chilean team in 2021 was far stronger than this present team. If we can play well with the last batch of players who finished 8th in 2021, then this batch has to do the same. No matter what it takes, just move on, look forward, and do your best,” said Vickneswaran played in the 1993 JWC in Spain.
The Malaysians rolled out a 7-1 win against Chile in the Pool A opening match that was graced by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah. However, they lost 4-0 against defending champions Argentina and concluded their last pool match against Australia with a 2-5 defeat.
Accepting the level of criticism from fans, he said, is part and parcel of being involved in sports and being an athlete.
“If you want to play or be involved for the country, you have to accept criticism. It is part of the journey. At the same time, you also need to shut off that criticism and focus on your task. You need to start moving forward in the best direction.
“But after this tournament, we need to sit down and reflect on where we went wrong. What have we done right? Some things are right, and we have to take that into consideration and move on to the next junior batch. Some players may step into the senior squad. We must ensure that this does not happen again,” said the president of Kuala Lumpur Hockey Association, who coached the KL team to victory in the Razak Cup tournament recently.
Vikneswaran added that he was amazed at the positive attitude shown by defender Ahmad Suhaimi Kamaruddin who sustained a nasal bone fracture and yet was adamant in wanting to play against the Australians wearing a sports face mask for protection.
“He is a player who always wants to improve and always wants to give his best. If he did not have that character in him, he wouldn’t be playing. He would have thrown in the towel and given up when the team was in crisis. But he made the decision himself to come back and step on the pitch.
“That was a tough decision he made and shows his character, his willingness, and determination to do something good for the country. But one person alone can’t do much. It must be a team effort,” said Vikneswaran.
“Obviously, the team must take the blame for the loss, but one can also see that we conceded goals that were not supposed to be conceded. For those who watched the game against Argentina, for instance, many say the score does not reflect the game. We could have won, but then we let in soft goals. So, these are areas we need to realize should not have happened,” he said.
Malaysia, he observed, has always produced good goalkeepers from the days of Khairuddin Zainal, Zulkifli Abbas, Mohd Sayuti, Mohamad Fadzil, Ahmad Suffian, to Mohamed Nasihin Nubli, and S. Kumar, so where did we go wrong?
The Malaysian Hockey Confederation had even hired Dutchman Martin Drijver, a renowned goalkeeper coach, to guide the players. So, with all those trainings just where did we go wrong? The coaching staff and players must seriously look into this.
FIXTURES:
Classification matches – 9 th to 16th
MONDAY (11 DEC – TOMORROW)
Malaysia V Egypt (9 am)
Belgium V Canada (11.15 am)
South Africa V Chile (3.45 pm)
South Korea V New Zealand (6 pm)
QUARTERFINALS
TUESDAY (12 DEC)
Argentina V Germany (9 am)
Netherlands V India (11.15 am)
France V Australia (3.45 pm)
Spain V Pakistan (6 pm)
