Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian men's hockey squad will face a mammoth task to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games as they must win all their matches at the Olympic Qualifier in Kakamigahara, Japan, beginning Saturday till April 13.The 18-player squad, under the charge of head coach Sarjit Singh, knew too well that they were shouldering a "do-or-die" mission in each of the six matches, as only one team-the overall winner-would proceed to compete in the Olympics, the world's biggest sporting event.
Malaysia, ranked 14th in the world, is drawn together with Italy (ranked 37th), Switzerland (333rd), Poland (21st), Japan (11th) and reigning world number one Germany, in a one-round league system before the classification match on April 13.
Standing on their path to Beijing would be two heavyweights, Germany and Japan. Malaysia also needs to win with huge scorelines against three other European teams-Poland, Italy and Switzerland-to keep their Olympic dream alive.
Faced with such quality opponents, the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) enlisted the service of experienced senior players, namely former skipper S. Kuhan, defender Mohd Amin Rahim and defensive midfielder Jiwa Mohan, to boost the team's overall strength.
Prior to this S. Kuhan and Mohd Amin, both penalty corner specialists, were dropped from the national team after a dismal performance at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, while Jiwa Mohan quit the national team last January to focus on his career as an engineer in an oil and gas firm.
However, S. Kuhan and Mohd Amin were recalled to join the national training in December last year after Zulkifli Rejab, also a penalty corner specialist, was ruled out of the team due to a knee injury.
Jiwa Mohan also agreed to play as the central defender for the national team on a temporary basis, replacing Megat Azrafiq Megat Termizi who was forced out of the team, also due to injury.
The Malaysian squad are now in Kakamigahara since Sunday to get themselves acclimatised before the battle for Beijing, which will start over the weekend.
Malaysia will play Poland on Saturday (April 5) and Italy on Sunday (April 6). The highlight of the qualifier will be the match against Germany on April 8 (Tuesday).
The team will face Switzerland on April 10. Malaysia's last match will be against host Japan on April 12 while the classification matches will be held on April 13.
The tournament's overall winner will join the other nations which have already qualified for Beijing Olympics, namely China (as host), Netherlands, South Korea, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Belarus, Australia, Great Britain, India and New Zealand.
Hockey will be played at the Olympic Green Hockey Field from August 10-23 during the Games.
Malaysia qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympic but failed to make the grade for the 2004 Athens Games. - Bernama
