Young Tigers hold off Indonesian threat even before final

INDONESIA have been the thorn in Malaysia’s flesh at the SEA Games but their threat was effectively eliminated before the final with a 4-2 win by the Young Tigers in the men’s field hockey round robin match at the Morodoc Techo National Sports Complex yesterday.

Indonesia had denied Malaysia the bragging right in the men’s indoor final last week where they came from behind to secure gold.

However, Amin Rahim’s field hockey players, despite not being at their best, completed their task of knocking Indonesia out of the final and will take on Singapore in the gold medal match tomorrow.

Both Shahmie Irfan Suhami and Najib Hassan scored in the 28th minute while Harris Osman followed it up in the 36th minute and Amirul Hamizan Azahar struck at the 43rd minute.

Lapses in concentration in the third quarter saw Raditya Derangga scoring twice in the 44th and 45th minutes and Amin cautioned his players not to repeat it against Singapore in the final.

“We have to remain focused through the 60 minutes and this did not happen today (yesterday) as we allowed the opponents to score two easy goals in the third quarter,” said Amin.

“We need to be disciplined and focused to complete the task.

“Singapore are an experienced team and they have played in the final against us many times.

“They showed their quality by beating Thailand 6-1 and we have to go all out and should not allow them the room to control the match.

“If we are focused and execute our strategy, I believe we should return with the gold medal.”

Amin has not forgotten the manner Singapore had pushed Malaysia all the way before they eventually won 4-3 on Thursday and the squad cannot afford any slip-ups to turn Malaysia’s hockey campaign at the SEA Games into a tragedy.