The main agenda for the national team this year is to get a place in the 2010 World Cup Finals. And finishing fourth in the Asia Cup tournament here has given them a place in the qualifying tournament along with runners-up Pakistan, China, and Japan.
South Korea emerged as the champions to earn direct entry to the World Cup Finals.
In the Asia Cup, Malaysia showed much better fitness. They also played with better commitment and greater confidence.
Credit must be given to coaches Tai Beng Hai and Nor Saiful Zaini for the turnaround in the team’s fortune.
The next assignment is the Champions Challenge II in Dublin from July 5-11. The tournament offers ranking points and Malaysia need to take it seriously.
Malaysia are now ranked 15th in the world and they are the second seeds in the tournament after 11th ranked Japan. The other teams in the fray are Ireland, Russia, France, Chile, Poland and Austria.
Beng Hai said that the tournament would be part of their preparation for the World Cup qualifiers in November and the team would resume training after a few days’ break.
“The focus is the World Cup qualifiers. We started our preparations four months ago and the team have done well,” he said.
“What lies ahead is tougher and we need to keep the improvement level going. I believe the players are just as determined as the coaching staff to work on their game.”
Changes in the team are expected, considering that the National Juniors will be available after the Junior World Cup Finals in June.
“We have said before that any changes to the training squad will be done after June. We know there are several players who could be roped into the squad. We now have 28 players in the team and some of them are still nursing injuries,” said Beng Hai.
The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) also have to make several decisions.
One is on whether to continue their search for a foreign coach or to offer Beng Hai and Nor Saiful Zaini long-term contracts. The duo have delivered on the targets set by the MHF — taking Malaysia to the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup final and Asia Cup semi-finals.
The MHF must look at the domestic competitions, among them the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL), which will affect the team’s preparation for the World Cup qualifying tournament. Teams in the Premier League of the MHL, which is scheduled to start in October, are unlikely to agree on releasing their national players.
The national team are in need of top-level practice matches. They came into the Asia Cup with seven matches against South Korean clubs sides, five games in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and one friendly against Pakistan.
“We will look into increasing the number of matches when the new programme is finalised. There are areas where we can improve further but emphasis will still be on fitness training. There will be no let up in the way we have been working over the last four months,” said Beng Hai.
The outings in Kuantan and before that in Ipoh in the Sultan Azlan Cup tournament have showed that Malaysia have what it takes to regain their standings in world hockey. But it will take harder work from the players for it to bear fruits.
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