Monday 25 / November / 2024
Muscat: Malaysia's field hockey captain Sukri Mutalib paid tribute to the Sultanate's Malaysian expatriate community for coming out to support their national team during the Asian Champions Trophy.
Mutalib told the Times of Oman in an exclusive interview, "As a captain, I'm very, very happy to receive support from the Malaysian fans here. And of course, I really appreciate them for coming to support us."
Malaysia lost their semi-final match to Pakistan 3-1 on penalties after regular play ended in a 4-4 draw. The Tigers, as the team is known, will face Japan tonight in a battle for third place.
Reflecting on their performance, Malaysia's coach Roelant Oltmans, said, "We had a good and bad experience, there are always mixed feelings in a tournament like this. But that is understandable knowing that just three weeks ago we started the process and you can't immediately expect a team to completely respond to all requirements from my side, that takes a little bit of time.
"Sometimes the boys really showed the capacity that they have, sometimes they played a little bit free of application from my point of view and that is something we want to improve towards the upcoming tournaments, especially the World Cup, which is next month. So, that is more or less our first objective to achieve and we need to train hard in the upcoming weeks," the Dutchman added.
"Every tournament gives you information, information about ourselves, about our opponents, about individual players, and what we always do is have an evaluation after the tournament and based on that evaluation we will start planning towards the World Cup and after that, the Olympic qualification process which start in April next year."
Looking towards this evening's battle with Japan, Oltsmans was confident Malaysia could defeat the Asian Games champions.
"The last couple of matches with Japan have always been close, we drew 2 and won 2, so of course we have a certain confidence that we can do it. But, I think the Japanese team showed some clear improvement during the tournament, especially their matches with India showed it — with the 9-0 loss the first time and the 3-2 the next time.
"This shows that they are improving as well and it will be an interesting encounter."
