Hockey Olympic Qualifier: Jiwa wants team-mates to stay focused until the final whistle

National hockey players have a tendency to “go to sleep” in the last 10 minutes of their matches and this has always led to the team's downfall in major tournaments.

And veteran defender Jiwa Mohan has warned his team-mates to stayed focused until the final whistle of every game in the Olympic qualifiers, which will begin in Kakamigahara, Japan, on Saturday.



Only one of the six teams from the qualifiers will earn a ticket to the Beijing Olympics in August.

The other teams competing in the qualifiers are hosts Japan, Poland, two-time world champions Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

Jiwa, who quit the national team in January to concentrate on his job with Sapura, was recalled for the qualifiers after defender Megat Azrafiq Megat Termizi was ruled out with a shin injury.

Jiwa, who has 221 international caps to his name, said in a telephone interview yesterday that the defenders needed to stay alert for the entire 70 minutes of each match.

“A slight mistake in defence can be costly as all the teams will be going all out to beat each other for the single ticket to Beijing,” said Jiwa.

“The defence had, in the past, crumbled in the dying minutes, resulting in us losing matches we could have won.”

He also said that their task would be more difficult as the playing surface was slippery.

“It's not going to be easy playing on a pitch which is slippery.

“The players, especially defenders, are bound to make mistakes and this could spell trouble for the teams.”

The Penang-born player added that he would do his best to help Malaysia make it to Beijing before calling it quits for good.

Malaysia, who arrived in Japan on Monday, will open their campaign against Poland on Saturday.

Malaysia’s other matches are against Italy on Sunday, Germany (April 8), Switzerland (April 10) and Japan (April 12).