Singapore men’s hockey team to play nine friendlies here

KUALA LUMPUR: The Singapore men’s national hockey team will play nine friendly matches here as part of their SEA Games preparation.

Former Malaysian international K. Rajan, who is now the Singapore chief coach, said that they decided to travel to Kuala Lumpur for the friendly matches “due to the lack of solid opposition back home”.

“We will travel here for the next three weeks and play three matches each weekend. Our players are unable to take leave during weekdays due to studies and work.

“I have already made arrangements for us to play against the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) club sides,” he said.

Rajan said that Singapore’s men and women’s teams have been set the same target – qualify for the final.

“Taking on Malaysia, who are ranked way above us, is an impossible task. They recently qualified for the World Cup and have a very strong team.

“I don’t think any of the SEA countries are in the same bracket as them,” he said.

The Kuala Lumpur Games will be held from Aug 19-30 and Malaysia are favourites to bag both the men and women’s field hockey gold medals.

This is the first time that hockey will be offering four gold medals – two each for field hockey and indoor hockey.

A total of five teams will compete in both categories of field hockey while six have entered for the indoor game.

Singapore, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia will compete in field hockey for both men and women. For the indoor game, the teams are Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia.

Only Vietnam are not fielding a team in women’s indoor hockey.

Rajan expects the race for indoor hockey gold to be an open affair “as it’s a new event”.

“Malaysia won’t have that big advantage in the indoor game as they are not well-known for it. So, all the other teams stand a chance to aim for gold as well,” he said.