KUALA LUMPUR: Many fans, as well as former hockey players, have given up hope on Malaysia doing well in the Junior World Cup (JWC) at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Dec 5-16.
They made the assessment after watching the 11th edition of the Sultan of Johor Cup (SoJC) at the Taman Daya Stadium as Malaysia narrowly missed the bottom spot after edging South Africa 3-2 in the 7th-8th classification match.
And with about a month until the Kuala Lumpur World Cup, many areas need to be improved fast. Penalty corners push out, stopping and execution for one.
The other is to turn the boys from a loose unit to a fighting side that play consistent hockey for 60 minutes, and not blow hot and cold every 15 minutes.
Malaysia were only hit hard by Britain, ironically the only team in the SoJC that did not qualify for the KL World Cup, 7-4 in the 5th-8th classification.
Malaysia's other matches were lost by one or two goal margins.
Starting with New Zealand (3-2), India (3-1), Pakistan (3-2) and finally winning their only match, 3-2, against South Africa.
"We have four penalty corner flickers with powerful drives, but unfortunately when we win a penalty corner, only one or two of them are on the pitch and we had to use the same flickers with no option.
"Penalty corners are turned into goals when the push out, stop and then the drag is done to perfection. We had trained many hours on this, but unfortunately my flickers kept missing their target.
"We have one month to push the penalty corner battery to the maximum, and by the time we play Chile in the World Cup (Dec 5), I am confident penalty corners will be our strongest point," said Malaysia coach Amin Rahim.
Amin, who was once the No. 1 drag flicker in the country, has been bogged down by underperforming players who take some quarters lightly and then try to claw their way back into the match after losing 3-0.
"Letting in easy goals was also our biggest problem in the SoJC. My players can't afford to play like this to qualify for the quarter-finals."
Malaysia, who are in Group A of the Junior World Cup with Australia, Argentina and Chile, need to beat two teams to move into the knockout round.
Incidentally, Malaysia were also in Group A at the 2021 Bhubaneswar Junior World Cup and their opening match was also against Chile. Malaysia beat Chile 2-1, drew 1-1 with Belgium and beat South Africa 4-3 to qualify for the quarter-finals.
This time, the same result can be achieved, if Amin manages to turn their mindset from that of a good team, to a winning side.
"I will give them a week to rest and recuperate, after which it's full swing to rectify the chinks identified at the SoJC.
"We lost many matches narrowly, and the coaching setup will turn this almost-there team to a winning side before our opening match," said Amin.
The home crowd is not going to be forgiving if Amin and his boys lose to Chile in the opener, so don't let the country down.