Turning slip- ups into success

Fast-paced play: Malaysia’s Marhan Jalil (right) vying for the ball with New Zealand’s Finn Ward. — CHAN TAK KONG/The Star

BUKIT JALIL: National hockey team captain Marhan Jalil admitted that the team have a bad habit of slipping up towards the end of a match, but believes it’s too soon to judge them for it.

That carelessness once again peeped through at the National Hockey Stadium when the Speedy Tigers let Japan score a goal in their 2-1 win in the final Group B match of the Nations Cup.

They needed a two-goal cushion to go through to the semi-finals but by conceding one towards the end saw them losing the spot to Pakistan on goal difference.

Pakistan joined group winners New Zealand to the semis while Malaysia have to play South Africa next to fight for fifth spot.

With the team’s bigger goal of winning at the Asian Games next year, Marhan said their performance has been worth noting, but they could do without the mistakes too.

“Looking at our goal for the Asian Games, we are still in the midst of building a full team, and we can’t gauge the performance entirely off of one tournament,” said Marhan.

“Based on our performance from the past three matches in the tournament, we are playing well. But we need to find more consistency.

“We start the game well, then concede goals towards the end. It’s something we need to figure out between the coaches and players.

“We managed to score first against Japan, but in the last five minutes we were caught slacking and they managed to get a goal in,” he said.

With fifth place still left to fight for, Marhan rallied his teammates, reminding them that the competition isn’t over just yet.

“We need to finish with the best possible result, the tournament isn’t over. There’s a lot for us to learn and fix,” he said.

Marhan also reminded the team to be wary of South Africa’s Samkelo Mvimbi, who has had experience playing in Malaysia when he recently won the 2025 Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) with Terengganu.

“Samkelo has played in our league, and he is the South African team captain,” said Marhan.

“He knows most of the players in our team and has knowledge about our style. So I hope we can overcome that in the classification game,” he said.