Up Against South Korea, Malaysia Needs To Tune Up

KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 (Bernama) -- Despite delivering three wins so far, the national hockey squad needs to tune-up its performance against top seed South Korea in the Olympic Qualifier in Dublin, Ireland on Thursday. Squad manager George Koshy said the team's "overall performance has not been 100 per cent". "There are still a lot of errors, a lot of small things that we do not expect at a high level competition like this. "Of course, (in) the next game we play (against) Korea, we need to win that game to be able to make it to the final...and looking at the performance, it's going to be tough," he said in an interview posted at malaysianhockey.blogspot.com. here Wednesday. Malaysia, who had defeated Chile 5-1, Russia 6-2 and Ukraine 5-1 in their previous three matches, now lead the pool standings with nine points. In Tuesday's draw, South Korea tied 1-1 with Ireland, thus opening up more opportunities for Malaysia to make it to the final. The team that finishes at the top of the six-team tournament will earn an automatic ticket to the London Olympics in July. Nevertheless, Koshy praised the players over their improvement in executing the penalty corner. "PC (penalty corner) conversion in this tournament has seen a marked improvement as compared to the last three tournaments...all the three flickers are scoring goals," he said. He denied claims that the cold weather in Dublin, which could reach to below 10 degree Celsius, had affected the team's overall performance. "They have got used to the cold weather when practising in Cardiff. It is cold but not to the extent that we need to be overly alarmed, as long as there is no wind." Echoing Koshy's sentiments, coach Tai Beng Hai said his boys needed to work hard to overcome the South Korean team which comprised many experienced players. "There's always a chance (of winning) if the boys perform on that day. We did manage to beat them in the Azlan Shah Cup (last year), we came very close in the Asian Trophy, so it's not impossible, but the boys will have to work for it," he said. Malaysia will take on South Korea tomorrow (Thursday) at 3.30pm Dublin time. (Local time 10.30pm) -- BERNAMA