KUALA LUMPUR – National hockey head coach Sarjit Singh has urged his team to stop being individualistic and start playing as a unit when they take on South Korea in their fifth-place classification match in the ongoing Nations Cup in Gniezno, Poland, tonight.
Having clashed a total of 34 times since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, South Korea, fondly known as the Taegeuks by fans, have a higher winning percentage of 50%.
However, the Speedy Tigers have a decent track record against the Koreans, and in their encounter at the recently concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, they managed to defeat their world number 14 opponents 1-0 in a pool match.
Malaysia went on to finish fourth in the 30th edition of the six-nation invitational tournament.
Speaking to Scoop from Gniezno, Sarjit said the South Korean side appeared to be more structured in the Nations Cup, citing how well they had managed to adapt to the bumpy conditions of the green turf in Poland.
Under the guidance of Min Tae-seok, with an average squad age of 26-years-old, South Korea finished fourth in Pool A with three points in the Nations Cup, while Sarjit’s Speedy Tigers finished third in Pool B with four points.
“While we kind of struggled to adapt to the bumpy turf in Poland, South Korea have managed to gel well with the conditions here, and they have demonstrated it with their defensive gameplay in the tournament.
“Though we have a good record against them recently, anything can happen at the Nations Cup as we are playing on neutral ground, and their players are really quick and also good with their penalty corners.
“Our issues with receiving a lot of cards in our matches are also something that we need to improve, but the main thing is that we need to stop playing as individual players and start playing as a unit in order to defeat them.
“We also have our strengths in earning penalty corners at the right moment, but our inability to execute them well is something we need to work on. Overall, we just hope to give our best and finish the tournament on a high note as the fifth-best team,” said Sarjit when contacted.
Since the start of their Nations Cup campaign on May 31, Malaysia have received a total of 14 cards in three pool matches against Pakistan, France and Canada.
Sarjit, brought in by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation on a two-year contract in March this year, selected 18 players from a pool of 30 for his revamped side.
The Speedy Tigers currently rank number 12 in the world with 1,919.58 points. – June 8, 2024