Friday, March 20, 2009

KL and Perak book semis spot

Defending champions Kuala Lumpur and Perak book the semi-final spots in the National Under-16 hockey championship with convincing wins in Group A matches at the Seremban II Hockey Stadium yesterday.

KL defeated Kelantan 4-2 while Perak outplayed Perlis 4-0. Selangor also chalked up an impressive 5-0 win over Pahang in Group A.

KL, Perak and Selangor all finished with 12 points from five matches. And Perak topped the group on better goal difference ahead of KL.



In the semi-finals, Perak will play against Group B runners-up Penang while KL will take on Terengganu.

KL coach I. Vickneswaran said that Terengganu had a solid team and it would be tough to get the better of them.

“They have a good attack and have scored a total of 18 goals. And their defence has let in only three goals in five matches,’’ he said.

Against Kelantan yesterday, Mohd Nor Aqmal Gahaffar scored a brace for KL in the 41st and 65th minute. The other goals were scored by Mohd Taufik Abdul Hamid (38th) and Ahmed Iqwan Shah Harun (68th). Kelantan replied through Mohd Fitri Saari (59th) and Aniq Amran (70th) minutes.

Perak team manager M. Kulasingam said that they were confident of defeating Penang to reach the final.

Meanwhile, Selangor’s coach Azlan Abdul Aziz and assistant team manager V. Jayakumar have been suspended from the tournament for unruly behaviour and their cases will be referred to the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) disciplinary board.

Tournament director Jusver Singh said that Azlan and Jayakumar constantly harassed the umpires during Selangor’s match against Perlis match on Wednesday and had to be restrained by technical officials from entering the pitch.

“Both of them entered the pitch after the match ended and confronted the umpires in a threatening manner,” said Jusver.

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