Four down for Penang

Penang, with four key players on the injury list, face a daunting task against favourites Malacca in the final of the National Under-21 hockey tournament at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil today.

Defenders R. Anbananthan and Abdul Rahimi Abdul Rahman; midfielder Mohd Fauzi Abdul Rahim and forward M. Yuvaraj are down with muscle pull and hamstring injuries.

But Penang coach B. Rajendran, who has only registered 16 players for the tournament, will have no choice but to field them against Malacca.

“Although teams are allowed to register 18 players, we decided not to do so as we didn’t want passengers on our team,” said Rajendran.

“Despite the injuries, I am confident my players will give their best against Malacca in the final.”

Rajendran is more concerned with his team’s poor penalty corner conversion rate.

“We scored from penalty corners in the group matches. But in the semi-final against Terengganu we earned 10 penalty corners but failed to convert any,” he said.

“We had a session (yesterday) just to practice our penalty corner set pieces and I hope we will get it right in the final.”

Ironically, Malacca have an excellent penalty corner flicker in Nazmi Kamaruddin.

The 21-year-old skipper is the top scorer for the team with 11 goals and has scored in all the six matches so far.

Nazmi aims to shine in the final as this would be his last outing in the age-group tournament.

“This is my second final appearance in the tournament. We lost to Perak 1-2 in the 2005 final. This time I hope to lead my team to victory,” said Nazmi.

Malacca also have the services of seven Razak Cup players, who won the tournament in Kuantan last October.

Malacca coach G. Ravindran has warned his players not to under-estimate Penang.

“I told them not to take anything for granted as Penang will be no pushover. They were unbeaten in their group matches and will have nothing to lose against us in the final,” said Ravindran.