Former Malaysian hockey ace Maheswari Kanniah believes that the women’s national squad has what it takes to beat Poland in the semi finals of the ongoing World Hockey League.
Having beaten Singapore, Kazakhstan, Russia in the group stages, Malaysia took on Ghana in the quarter finals yesterday, triumphing 2-0 to book their spot in the semis. They have netted 18 goals in four games thus far, without conceding a single goal in return.
Maheswari, who is also the incumbent vice-president of MHC, claims that Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim’s girls are far more experienced than their counterparts in the semis and believes that they are well equipped to progress into the final.
“The girls have been playing together for a very long time.” Maheswari told Fourthofficial.com
“I think we can win because we’re more experienced than them, even when you look at it historically. They only came into the hockey scene after it boomed into a global sport.
But Maheswari was quick to insist that the Malaysian girls should not undermine the talent within the Polish squad, especially since they only suffered a 0-1 loss to Malaysia in a friendly game prior to the tournament.
“They only defeated them by one goal, so it’s going to be a 50-50 match. The brilliance of one player could potentially change the game, so Malaysia have to be really alert and make use of the chances.
“Scoring one or two goals wouldn’t mean anything, because things could always change in the last quarter or so. We missed a lot of chances against Ghana but maybe the girls were just tired.
“They haven’t had a break, and that must have played a part because the adrenaline wasn’t there,” she added.
Photo Credits: kenanga.com
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