KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — The Speedy Tigers still find it hard to comprehend how they could throw away a two-goal lead en route to losing 4 – 3 to India in the final of the 2023 Men’s Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) yesterday.
Head coach A. Arulselvaraj said, however, the national men’s hockey team must be patient and continue to show improvement ahead of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games in China from September 23 to October 8 and confirm their spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“We must learn to make snap decisions in critical moments or when under pressure because India are one of the top four teams in the world and (we must) always play very high-intensity games against teams like Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia. We must also learn to cut down on simple errors and (avoid being) booked,” he said via a video clip.
Arulselvaraj is also thankful his men managed to avoid any serious injuries in the ACT held in Chennai, India, due to the tight schedule of having to play seven matches in 10 days from August 3.
He expressed satisfaction that his players looked sharper and more agile in attack, allowing them to score more field and penalty corner goals.
“We have several players who can score field goals while all four of our penalty corner flickers also found the target. The training sessions we had with the two Australian specialists — Kieren Govers dan Glen Turner — have certainly helped us in terms of penetrating the circle.
“They will be back to help us in Malaysia. Hopefully, we can improve our ‘circle penetration and entry’ for a better outcome,” Arulselvaraj said.
In yesterday’s ACT final, the Speedy Tigers led 3 – 1 in the second quarter but world number three India struck twice in the space of a few seconds to make it 3 – 3 in the third quarter before sealing their fourth ACT title with the fourth goal just four minutes before the final whistle.
Finishing as runners-up this time is the best achievement ever by the Speedy Tigers since the inception of the ACT in 2011, having finished third five times in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016m and 2018.
Malaysia, who won five out of seven matches in the ACT this time, also managed to leapfrog South Korea into ninth position in the world ranking.
— Bernama
