KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian hockey icon and national team manager Datuk Mirnawan Nawawi believes the Speedy Tigers have to give their hearts and souls for the country when they take on Pakistan in their final Paris Olympics qualifiers match in Oman tonight.
The former Olympian said that his charges should be vigilant of the Flying Green Horses’ penalty corner expertise.
“Pakistan is a talented side, fast and skilful with really good flickers, and we have to be tactically ready for that.
“We will be coming up with some tactical analysis based on our previous matches, and we will have to rectify and reduce our mistakes.
“The journey is not over for us, as we still have a mathematical chance to qualify for the next round, and we believe that we can make it happen if we do our best in not conceding penalty corners against them.
“It’s going to be a defensive match, and the best defence will make it to the next round, and we will give our 200% to achieve our ultimate goal of reaching this year’s Olympics,” said Mirnawan when he was contacted by Scoop.
Malaysia has previously met Pakistan in 33 occasions, with the Speedy Tigers only having a 14.71% winning percentage against them.
The last time the two sides met was during the Hangzhou Asian Games in September of last year, where the Speedy Tigers were defeated 5-2.
Expressing optimism, Mirnawan urges his team to draw inspiration from their previous flaws.
Despite tough contests in the qualifying campaign thus far, he refrained from labelling his team’s performance as subpar.
“Our campaign so far was tough, but I won’t say that we were bad in our games as the players’ team spirit was awesome.
“All we have to do right now is continue with our fighting spirit and we should not let our guards down.
“We were unlucky with our defeat against China in the first match, but we went with the mentality to draw the match against Great Britain (on Tuesday), but it didn’t materialise.
“However, I would say that the team played well in the first quarter of the game, but we couldn’t maintain our momentum, and we had to make some tactical changes in the last two quarters to control our goal deficits.
“We have pledged to go all out in our upcoming match and make sure that we capitalise on every chance that we get,” Mirnawan added.
Malaysia lost 3-2 in their opening match against China on Monday and were defeated 4-1 by Great Britain in their second group match the next day.
The Speedy Tigers will now hope for Great Britain to gain an emphatic win against China in their final group match later today.
Malaysia currently ranks at the bottom of Pool A with zero points and a negative four-goal difference, while Pakistan sits in third place after defeating China 2-0 earlier. – January 18, 2024