KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia men's hockey coach Amin Rahim is leaving no stone unturned as he prepares for a golden outing against Singapore tomorrow.
Malaysia, parading their Junior World Cup (JWC) side, scraped past a senior Singapore team 4-3 in the pool stage, and this has prompted the southern neighbours to dream of gold as well.
"We trained shootouts on our rest day (yesterday) as I believe in covering every possible angle to win gold in Cambodia.
"Singapore will not be easy, but I am confident my players will rise to the occasion and deliver what is expected of them," said Amin.
Penalty shootouts have been a bane for both the field and indoor hockey teams in recent times. Malaysia's shootout battery lost to Spain in the Bhubaneswar-Rourkela World Cup, and the eighth placing slipped out of their hands.
And in indoor, Malaysian men and women both lost shootouts to Indonesia and Thailand respectively in the Sea Games finals.
"This JWC team have seen their ups and downs in Cambodia (only a 4-2 win against Indonesia) and one of the main reasons is our penalty corner conversion rate.
"We won many penalty corners in four matches, but could only convert a handful.
"My flickers also trained direct and variations on Monday, and have to be sharper to win the final," said Amin.
In the 4-3 win against Singapore, penalty corners did the trick as Malaysia won five and scored three while their other was a field attempt.
Amin and his men need to win gold at all costs, as Malaysian men have been supreme in Sea Games field hockey, and lost only one gold at the 1973 SEAP Games, and it was against hosts Singapore.
