Thursday, September 8, 2016

UniKL Sim for 4 points



It will be a crucial weekend for UniKL in the Malaysian Hockey League.

They will be up against Tenaga Nasional Berhad on Friday and take on table toppers Sapura on Saturday.

UniKL need to gather at least four points in the two matches to keep alive their hopes of making the semi finals.

It is the match against TNB that coach Arul Selvaraj is hoping to collect all 3 points to boast their chances of a top four finish.

" It is crucial for us to win against the likes of TNB and Naybank to make it to the semis," said Arul ahead of their TNB match.

" These two teams are our rivals for the semis as we have to be realistic that the current three teams occupying the top three positions will be hard to match.

" TNB are on a high after making the final of the knock out tournament but at the sane time may be tired as well as they played in the weekday.

" Hence my instruction to the players is to get an early goal and that will be the key to success."

UniKL had defeated TNB 1-0 in the first round league match but were on the receiving end in the knockout tournament, going down 1-2 in the last eight match.

An area that is of concern to Arul is penalty corners as UniKL have been wasting theirs as evident in their last three matches, scoring only twice from 21 penalty corners,

TNB are in great form both in conversion and Defence in penalty corners as Syed Syafiq Choulan has been scoring while keeper S. Kumar has been in his torment in defending shots at goal.

But UniKL have been pathetic  in both  aspects and need to improve on this to have any chance of beating TNB.

Players like Najmi Farizal, Mohammad Tousiq and Baljit Singh need to Herut act right.

And Arul might just opt to change Irish keeper James Caragh who has let it soft penalty corner goals in their last three matches.

" I cannot emphasise the importance of the match against TNB as it will be a make or break for our season," added Arul.

" We need to improve several notches to get the result we desire and I have faith in my players to deliver the crucial points."