Star : Saiful urges Tenaga to be positive, Chiow Chuan fumes over poor umpiring

KUALA LUMPUR: One coach wants his players to overcome their mental block. Another wants the standard of umpiring to be restored.

Outspoken coaches Nor Saiful Zaini and Lim Chiow Chuan have spoken their minds ahead of the TNB Cup semi-final first leg between Tenaga Nasional and Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) today.

Tenaga coach Saiful has urged his players to discard their low self-esteem mentality.

“My players seem to have this mental block playing against KLHC. We lost to them 4-0 in the second-round match and my boys seem to have too much respect for them,” said Saiful.

“We need to play with a positive mindset that nothing is impossible to achieve.

“We surprised KLHC in the first round by beating them (4-2) and we can do it again.

“The players just need to keep believing in themselves,” he said.

In the Tan Sri P. Alagendra Cup, KLHC edged Tenaga 2-1 in the quarter-finals.

Nor Saiful added their penalty corner conversion rates had been far from satisfactory.

“I hope that our two drag flickers Syed (Mohd Syafiq Syed Cholan) and Muhd Shahril (Saabah) will perform,” he said.

He also hopes their defence, led by skipper and pint-sized Faiz Helmi Jali, will step up and goalkeeper Mohd Hairi Abdul Rahman will be in top form between the posts.

As for KLHC coach Chiow Chuan, he cited the poor umpiring as one of the reasons his side failed to retain the league title.

“I’m not happy with some of the decisions but all these problems could have been easily solved if we had videoreplays.

“Teams spend a lot of money on hiring foreign and local players but we’re let down by poor umpiring. I hope the organisers will invest in video technology so that there will be fair umpiring,” said Chiow Chuan.

On the match, he said: “The semis is a different ball game altogether. The stakes are higher as all teams have an equal chance.

“Tenaga have 10 national players and they are strong. A win will put any team in a better mental state for the return leg, so we’ll go all out.”


Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/sport/hockey/2018/02/04/saiful-urges-tenaga-to-be-positive-chiow-chuan-fumes-over-poor-umpiring/#ZIBXxpjTdJvwghMu.99